Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Technology, Consumer Goods and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.57%, while the S&P 500 index declined 1.02%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 2.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 1.44% or 3.44 points to trade at 242.28 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) added 1.15% or 1.99 points to end at 174.45 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was up 1.16% or 3.03 points to 264.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which lost 3.02% or 6.87 points to trade at 220.99 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 2.36% or 2.93 points to end at 121.45 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) shed 2.37% or 5.60 points to 230.97.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Nielsen Holdings PLC (NYSE:NLSN) which rose 8.05% to 18.93, Lowe’s Companies Inc (NYSE:LOW) which was up 5.90% to settle at 160.16 and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) which gained 5.83% to close at 158.01.
The worst performers were Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) which was down 5.57% to 160.50 in late trade, Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) which lost 5.13% to settle at 124.90 and Skyworks Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:SWKS) which was down 4.74% to 148.41 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Greenwich Lifesciences Inc (NASDAQ:GLSI) which rose 1000.00% to 90.00, Xenetic Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:XBIO) which was up 231.48% to settle at 3.580 and Rocket Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:RCKT) which gained 80.38% to close at 57.77.
The worst performers were Pluristem Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PSTI) which was down 38.92% to 7.00 in late trade, Atossa Genetics Inc (NASDAQ:ATOS) which lost 38.64% to settle at 0.877 and Sino-Global Shipping America Ltd (NASDAQ:SINO) which was down 37.66% to 2.4000 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1709 to 1376 and 92 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2029 fell and 978 advanced, while 54 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 8.90% to 22.52.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 2.03% or 38.05 to $1836.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $45.55 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.06% or 0.03 to trade at $48.87 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.24% to 1.2072, while USD/JPY rose 0.09% to 104.25.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 91.088.