Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Technology and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.10%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.05%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), which rose 1.62% or 0.52 points to trade at 32.65 at the close. E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) added 1.60% or 1.24 points to end at 78.92 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) was up 1.00% or 2.03 points to 204.47 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which lost 3.28% or 7.16 points to trade at 211.26 in late trade. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) declined 2.09% or 1.75 points to end at 82.15 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shed 0.81% or 0.57 points to 69.84.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Perrigo Co (NYSE:PRGO) which rose 7.26% to 72.85, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VRTX) which was up 2.67% to settle at 123.60 and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) which gained 2.32% to close at 459.06.
The worst performers were Michael Kors Holdings Limited (NYSE:KORS) which was down 8.52% to 33.18 in late trade, Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which lost 4.57% to settle at 6.06 and CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which was down 3.62% to 26.90 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Microbot Medical Inc (NASDAQ:MBOT) which rose 68.03% to 4.5200, LiNiu Technology Group (NASDAQ:LINU) which was up 68.60% to settle at 0.725 and Educational Development Corporation (NASDAQ:EDUC) which gained 39.72% to close at 9.85.
The worst performers were NII Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:NIHD) which was down 30.93% to 0.568 in late trade, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) which lost 23.26% to settle at 1.815 and Ominto Inc (NASDAQ:OMNT) which was down 23.07% to 6.5700 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1626 to 1595 and 37 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1262 fell and 1232 advanced, while 136 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.48% to 10.43.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.53% or 6.72 to $1268.82 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 2.60% or 1.29 to hit $48.37 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.78% or 1.45 to trade at $50.79 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.47% to 1.1239, while USD/JPY fell 0.07% to 110.75.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 96.93.