Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.80%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.70%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which rose 2.96% or 0.88 points to trade at 30.65 at the close. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 0.82% or 0.31 points to end at 37.98 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 0.28% or 0.33 points to 118.22 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which lost 4.60% or 1.54 points to trade at 31.96 in late trade. Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) declined 2.82% or 6.66 points to end at 229.31 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) shed 2.12% or 2.94 points to 135.98.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Signature Bank (OTC:SBNY) which rose 36.21% to 0.09, Generac Holdings Inc (NYSE:GNRC) which was up 11.61% to settle at 114.74 and Assurant Inc (NYSE:AIZ) which gained 9.28% to close at 132.03.
The worst performers were Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) which was down 17.34% to 202.70 in late trade, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which lost 9.25% to settle at 81.59 and Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) which was down 9.17% to 103.96 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were ImmunoGen Inc (NASDAQ:IMGN) which rose 135.77% to 12.26, Aptorum Group Ltd Class A (NASDAQ:APM) which was up 98.29% to settle at 5.73 and Harbor Custom Development Inc (NASDAQ:HCDI) which gained 90.25% to close at 7.61.
The worst performers were VCI Global Ltd (NASDAQ:VCIG) which was down 68.84% to 5.30 in late trade, Guardforce AI Co Ltd (NASDAQ:GFAI) which lost 56.46% to settle at 5.09 and Actelis Networks Inc (NASDAQ:ASNS) which was down 45.01% to 3.58 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1780 to 1200 and 110 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1783 rose and 1771 declined, while 158 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 3.15% to 18.34.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.76% or 15.35 to $2,038.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 4.73% or 3.39 to hit $68.27 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 4.34% or 3.27 to trade at $72.05 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.51% to 1.11, while USD/JPY fell 0.99% to 135.18.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.57% at 101.14.