Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.92% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 2.37%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 3.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which rose 8.76% or 10.24 points to trade at 127.11 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) added 0.16% or 0.23 points to end at 144.44 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was down 0.37% or 0.31 points to 82.63 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which lost 4.76% or 11.79 points to trade at 235.99 in late trade. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) declined 4.74% or 3.58 points to end at 71.95 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shed 4.19% or 4.69 points to 107.12.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) which rose 8.76% to 127.11, Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) which was up 6.72% to settle at 38.92 and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) which gained 6.08% to close at 45.33.
The worst performers were Albemarle Corp (NYSE:ALB) which was down 15.56% to 80.42 in late trade, Apache Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) which lost 9.31% to settle at 11.10 and Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) which was down 7.44% to 28.73 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SPI Energy Co Ltd (NASDAQ:SPI) which rose 1000.00% to 14.000, Sunworks Inc (NASDAQ:SUNW) which was up 50.38% to settle at 1.160 and Digital Ally Inc (NASDAQ:DGLY) which gained 47.64% to close at 2.820.
The worst performers were AC Immune Ltd (NASDAQ:ACIU) which was down 44.95% to 4.80 in late trade, Wave Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ:WVE) which lost 36.74% to settle at 10.02 and Payment Data Systems Inc (NASDAQ:USIO) which was down 30.40% to 1.580 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2789 to 323 and 38 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2475 fell and 421 advanced, while 48 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 6.40% to 28.58.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 2.15% or 41.05 to $1866.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.53% or 0.21 to hit $39.59 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $41.48 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.1663, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 105.33.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.44% at 94.430.