Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Telecoms and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.67%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.55%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), which rose 2.21% or 2.80 points to trade at 129.26 at the close. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) added 0.94% or 1.48 points to end at 158.64 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) was up 0.42% or 0.48 points to 115.19 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 2.75% or 2.59 points to trade at 91.52 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 1.96% or 0.96 points to end at 47.96 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) shed 1.95% or 3.65 points to 183.06.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Advance Auto Parts Inc (NYSE:AAP) which rose 8.21% to 114.00, Mattel Inc (NASDAQ:MAT) which was up 3.34% to settle at 17.02 and Expeditors International Washington (NASDAQ:EXPD) which gained 3.33% to close at 63.99.
The worst performers were Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) which was down 11.77% to 30.57 in late trade, Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE:NFX) which lost 9.83% to settle at 23.20 and Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) which was down 6.90% to 42.90 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANTH) which rose 43.79% to 2.430, Restoration Robotics Inc (NASDAQ:HAIR) which was up 35.61% to settle at 6.36 and Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER) which gained 21.65% to close at 0.499.
The worst performers were Tile Shop Hldgs Inc (NASDAQ:TTS) which was down 26.92% to 6.175 in late trade, Inpixon (NASDAQ:INPX) which lost 18.26% to settle at 1.7900 and MabVax Therapeutics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MBVX) which was down 16.39% to 2.040 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1676 to 1429 and 107 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1437 rose and 1081 declined, while 123 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.80% to 20.23.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.42% or 5.60 to $1325.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.08% or 0.67 to hit $61.12 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.43% or 0.28 to trade at $64.97 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.41% to 1.2286, while USD/JPY rose 0.37% to 107.73.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.40% at 90.00.