Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Financials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.08%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 1.15% or 0.44 points to trade at 38.74 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 1.11% or 0.52 points to end at 47.56 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) was up 1.07% or 1.61 points to 152.52 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 1.90% or 2.12 points to trade at 109.69 in late trade. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) declined 1.30% or 0.48 points to end at 36.46 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) shed 1.01% or 0.65 points to 63.59.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which rose 4.71% to 3.780, Concho Resources Inc (NYSE:CXO) which was up 4.63% to settle at 146.81 and Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE:PXD) which gained 4.37% to close at 167.20.
The worst performers were Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) which was down 5.32% to 122.00 in late trade, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE:CMG) which lost 4.63% to settle at 298.67 and Nielsen Holdings (NYSE:NLSN) which was down 3.41% to 36.22 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Net Element Inc (NASDAQ:NETE) which rose 272.17% to 19.3900, Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ:GENE) which was up 79.40% to settle at 1.740 and NXT-ID Inc (NASDAQ:NXTD) which gained 74.73% to close at 3.1800.
The worst performers were ChinaCache International Holdings (NASDAQ:CCIH) which was down 36.39% to 1.94 in late trade, China Commercial Credit Inc (NASDAQ:CCCR) which lost 33.85% to settle at 1.7000 and Sorrento Tech Inc (NASDAQ:ROKA) which was down 31.58% to 0.6500 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1574 to 1522 and 128 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1289 rose and 1232 declined, while 119 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.29% to 9.70.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.36% or 4.50 to $1268.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.87% or 0.50 to hit $58.06 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.14% or 0.73 to trade at $64.53 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.27% to 1.1871, while USD/JPY rose 0.48% to 113.43.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 92.94.