Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Industrials and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.94%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.76%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), which rose 1.86% or 2.42 points to trade at 132.60 at the close. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 1.19% or 1.57 points to end at 133.94 and Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) was up 0.76% or 0.39 points to 51.39 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 4.35% or 2.76 points to trade at 60.75 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 3.97% or 9.98 points to end at 241.25 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 3.44% or 7.77 points to 218.25.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were WEC Energy Group Inc (NYSE:WEC) which rose 4.07% to 92.37, CMS Energy Corporation (NYSE:CMS) which was up 3.47% to settle at 60.53 and Nextera Energy Inc (NYSE:NEE) which gained 3.25% to close at 74.02.
The worst performers were Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which was down 9.51% to 16.09 in late trade, ViacomCBS Inc (NASDAQ:VIAC) which lost 9.06% to settle at 91.25 and Helmerich and Payne Inc (NYSE:HP) which was down 8.33% to 27.19 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Dolphin Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:DLPN) which rose 236.33% to 18.3300, Benitec Biopharma Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:BNTC) which was up 190.28% to settle at 9.26 and Liquid Media Group Ltd (NASDAQ:YVR) which gained 22.92% to close at 5.310.
The worst performers were Frequency Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FREQ) which was down 77.98% to 7.99 in late trade, Windtree Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:WINT) which lost 34.29% to settle at 2.530 and Jiayin Group Inc (NASDAQ:JFIN) which was down 29.92% to 10.26 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 0 to 0; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 0 fell and 0 advanced on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 7.52% to 20.30.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.05% or 0.90 to $1726.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.17% or 0.10 to hit $57.86 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 1.01% or 0.61 to trade at $60.99 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.04% to 1.1844, while USD/JPY rose 0.01% to 108.58.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 92.403.