Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Technology, Financials and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.68%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.64%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 1.87% or 4.17 points to trade at 226.94 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) added 1.30% or 1.72 points to end at 134.35 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 0.50% or 0.26 points to 51.78 in late trade.
Biggest losers included General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which lost 4.44% or 0.67 points to trade at 14.43 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declined 2.44% or 2.36 points to end at 94.41 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shed 2.35% or 2.30 points to 95.37.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Pacific Gas & Electric Co (NYSE:PCG) which rose 6.32% to 45.10, Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) which was up 5.57% to settle at 31.34 and Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE:ALK) which gained 4.58% to close at 68.79.
The worst performers were Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) which was down 4.95% to 59.70 in late trade, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which lost 4.72% to settle at 121.08 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which was down 4.44% to 14.43 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Spherix Incorporated (NASDAQ:SPEX) which rose 54.62% to 2.0100, Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PTI) which was up 54.11% to settle at 6.38 and Fuel Tech Inc (NASDAQ:FTEK) which gained 37.72% to close at 1.570.
The worst performers were Silicom Ltd (NASDAQ:SILC) which was down 30.57% to 40.66 in late trade, iFresh Inc (NASDAQ:IFMK) which lost 24.41% to settle at 6.69 and CounterPath Corp (NASDAQ:CPAH) which was down 22.89% to 3.570 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1881 to 1224 and 103 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1577 fell and 931 advanced, while 137 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.12% to 16.43.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.42% or 5.60 to $1326.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.19% or 0.73 to hit $60.63 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.65% or 0.42 to trade at $64.53 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.39% to 1.2388, while USD/JPY rose 0.13% to 106.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 89.71.