Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.17%, while the S&P 500 index declined 1.75%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 0.91% or 0.70 points to trade at 77.89 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) fell 0.01% or 0.01 points to end at 147.13 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) was down 0.06% or 0.07 points to 123.71 in late trade.
Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which lost 6.15% or 5.11 points to trade at 78.03 in late trade. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) declined 5.38% or 2.18 points to end at 38.35 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) shed 4.96% or 2.19 points to 41.93.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) which rose 6.90% to 485.80, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) which was up 3.51% to settle at 577.12 and Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) which gained 2.28% to close at 678.80.
The worst performers were Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which was down 15.47% to 3.66 in late trade, National Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) which lost 10.71% to settle at 11.51 and Under Armour Inc C (NYSE:UA) which was down 9.77% to 6.93 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) which rose 79.85% to 1.3100, RumbleON Inc (NASDAQ:RMBL) which was up 42.09% to settle at 0.5800 and Creative Realities Inc (NASDAQ:CREX) which gained 41.80% to close at 4.580.
The worst performers were Varex Imaging Corp (NASDAQ:VREX) which was down 32.61% to 17.06 in late trade, TESSCO Technologies Incorporated (NASDAQ:TESS) which lost 26.24% to settle at 4.75 and Infinera Corporation (NASDAQ:INFN) which was down 25.34% to 4.33 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2575 to 335 and 34 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2217 fell and 465 advanced, while 40 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 6.78% to 35.28.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.97% or 16.60 to $1723.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.93% or 0.24 to hit $25.54 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.02 to trade at $29.39 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.02% to 1.0818, while USD/JPY rose 0.07% to 107.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 100.260.