Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Oil & Gas and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.52%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.65%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.93%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP), which rose 1.47% or 0.79 points to trade at 54.47 at the close. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 0.75% or 0.85 points to end at 114.85 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 0.72% or 0.37 points to 51.67 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which lost 3.63% or 2.30 points to trade at 61.10 in late trade. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) declined 2.40% or 1.03 points to end at 41.86 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 1.68% or 2.31 points to 134.83.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) which rose 6.11% to 89.26, Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) which was up 5.11% to settle at 100.35 and Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) which gained 4.29% to close at 164.00.
The worst performers were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which was down 7.89% to 9.11 in late trade, Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:SIG) which lost 6.91% to settle at 25.85 and Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW) which was down 6.13% to 170.88 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Bio Path Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BPTH) which rose 160.46% to 12.020, OHR Pharmaceutical Inc (NASDAQ:OHRP) which was up 42.86% to settle at 3.100 and Tenax Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TENX) which gained 29.37% to close at 1.630.
The worst performers were SSLJ.com Ltd Class A (NASDAQ:SSLJ) which was down 25.99% to 0.6579 in late trade, Yangtze River Port and Logistics Ltd (NASDAQ:YRIV) which lost 20.28% to settle at 0.58 and Valeritas Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VLRX) which was down 19.97% to 0.4399 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2292 to 723 and 86 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2124 fell and 525 advanced, while 62 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 5.57% to 15.74.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.07% or 0.85 to $1287.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.12% or 0.07 to hit $56.12 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.03 to trade at $65.95 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.05% to 1.1311, while USD/JPY fell 0.08% to 111.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 96.815.