Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.77%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 1.19% or 0.90 points to trade at 76.60 at the close. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) added 0.70% or 1.08 points to end at 156.26 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) was up 0.38% or 0.49 points to 130.13 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 2.42% or 1.63 points to trade at 65.59 in late trade. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) declined 2.10% or 2.94 points to end at 137.06 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) shed 1.87% or 3.75 points to 196.86.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which rose 4.62% to 30.55, Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC) which was up 4.04% to settle at 17.79 and Centene Corp (NYSE:CNC) which gained 3.74% to close at 72.62.
The worst performers were Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW) which was down 7.19% to 237.23 in late trade, H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which lost 6.49% to settle at 23.62 and Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) which was down 5.61% to 77.06 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Gaucho Group Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VINO) which rose 83.62% to 7.510, Orphazyme (NASDAQ:ORPH) which was up 60.30% to settle at 16.11 and Kindred Bioscncs (NASDAQ:KIN) which gained 45.74% to close at 9.24.
The worst performers were Inhibikase Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:IKT) which was down 27.63% to 2.92 in late trade, 9F Inc (NASDAQ:JFU) which lost 14.83% to settle at 2.24 and Fusion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:FUSN) which was down 13.90% to 8.30 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1982 to 1187 and 122 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1844 fell and 1587 advanced, while 145 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 6.64% to 18.15.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 1.55% or 28.85 to $1827.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.36% or 0.26 to hit $71.86 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.05 to trade at $74.04 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 1.02% to 1.2000, while USD/JPY rose 0.52% to 110.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.93% at 91.347.