Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Industrials and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.72%, while the S&P 500 index fell 2.59%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 2.19%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), which fell 0.64% or 0.77 points to trade at 120.30 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) fell 1.11% or 1.31 points to end at 116.42 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was down 1.25% or 2.33 points to 184.29 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 7.01% or 2.90 points to trade at 38.45 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 5.96% or 11.19 points to end at 176.69 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) shed 4.71% or 2.20 points to 44.50.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) which rose 2.24% to 32.82, Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) which was up 1.61% to settle at 131.34 and CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:CHRW) which gained 1.59% to close at 78.54.
The worst performers were Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which was down 12.37% to 15.80 in late trade, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) which lost 11.26% to settle at 48.24 and Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which was down 11.11% to 16.00 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Wins Finance Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:WINS) which rose 118.72% to 43.00, Professional Diversity Network Inc (NASDAQ:IPDN) which was up 67.03% to settle at 1.5200 and The9 Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:NCTY) which gained 58.98% to close at 0.983.
The worst performers were Castor Maritime Inc (NASDAQ:CTRM) which was down 32.30% to 0.426 in late trade, Avinger Inc (NASDAQ:AVGR) which lost 25.67% to settle at 0.290 and Biosig Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:BSGM) which was down 21.94% to 7.58 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2562 to 318 and 56 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2256 fell and 474 advanced, while 30 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 7.87% to 33.84.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.56% or 10.00 to $1772.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 5.72% or 2.31 to hit $38.06 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.03 to trade at $40.31 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1255, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 107.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.61% at 97.198.