Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Industrials, Oil & Gas and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.42%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.65%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which rose 1.83% or 6.65 points to trade at 369.40 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) added 0.76% or 2.02 points to end at 266.68 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 0.45% or 0.22 points to 49.39 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 2.41% or 3.35 points to trade at 135.74 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) declined 2.33% or 3.10 points to end at 130.09 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) shed 2.31% or 1.29 points to 54.52.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) which rose 8.74% to 260.37, Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) which was up 3.77% to settle at 145.72 and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) which gained 3.14% to close at 85.75.
The worst performers were CSX Corporation (NASDAQ:CSX) which was down 10.27% to 71.38 in late trade, Textron Inc (NYSE:TXT) which lost 9.53% to settle at 48.88 and Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE:NSC) which was down 7.43% to 191.11 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Guardion Health Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:GHSI) which rose 93.75% to 1.8600, Scpharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SCPH) which was up 27.01% to settle at 5.36 and AVROBIO Inc (NASDAQ:AVRO) which gained 19.52% to close at 22.90.
The worst performers were Xenetic Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:XBIO) which was down 49.26% to 5.500 in late trade, Xcel Brands Inc (NASDAQ:XELB) which lost 17.74% to settle at 2.69 and Monaker Group Inc (NASDAQ:MKGI) which was down 17.23% to 2.4500 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1921 to 1083 and 20 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1704 fell and 934 advanced, while 104 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 8.63% to 13.97.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.20% or 16.95 to $1428.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.80% or 1.04 to hit $56.58 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $63.61 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.1226, while USD/JPY fell 0.00% to 107.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 96.850.