Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.04%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.29%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.85%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 2.49% or 1.34 points to trade at 55.09 at the close. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 2.00% or 1.72 points to end at 87.77 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) was up 1.79% or 0.24 points to 13.68 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 3.11% or 1.59 points to trade at 49.60 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) declined 2.39% or 1.02 points to end at 41.66 and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) shed 2.23% or 2.56 points to 112.10.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which rose 4.34% to 29.07, Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) which was up 3.71% to settle at 61.55 and Simon Property Group Inc (NYSE:SPG) which gained 3.62% to close at 155.91.
The worst performers were Concho Resources Inc (NYSE:CXO) which was down 8.76% to 143.25 in late trade, Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) which lost 5.32% to settle at 146.20 and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which was down 4.96% to 285.77 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Turtle Beach Corp (NASDAQ:HEAR) which rose 19.86% to 0.670, American Electric Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AETI) which was up 20.00% to settle at 1.200 and TheStreet Inc (NASDAQ:TST) which gained 16.97% to close at 1.930.
The worst performers were Edge Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:EDGE) which was down 91.60% to 1.31 in late trade, Apricus Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:APRI) which lost 33.70% to settle at 0.398 and Sorrento Therape (NASDAQ:SRNE) which was down 26.98% to 4.60 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1582 to 1504 and 118 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1398 fell and 1128 advanced, while 121 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.33% to 22.80.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.27% or 17.10 to $1324.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.90% or 0.59 to hit $64.66 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.73% or 0.51 to trade at $68.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.76% to 1.2309, while USD/JPY rose 1.45% to 106.87.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.89% at 89.75.