U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.39%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Technology, Consumer Services and Oil&Gas sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.39%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.60%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.14%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which rose 0.81% or 2.06 points to trade at 257.09 at the close. Merck&Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 0.80% or 0.93 points to end at 117.43 and Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) was up 0.79% or 2.57 points to 329.50 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 2.93% or 2.50 points to trade at 82.79 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) declined 2.29% or 0.46 points to end at 19.61 and Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) shed 1.96% or 5.17 points to 259.03.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ:PODD) which rose 6.15% to 204.42, Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc (NYSE:BIO) which was up 2.94% to settle at 328.75 and Tyson Foods Inc (NYSE:TSN) which gained 2.75% to close at 65.69.

The worst performers were Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ:SMCI) which was down 19.02% to 443.49 in late trade, Bath&Body Works Inc. (NYSE:BBWI) which lost 7.00% to settle at 32.29 and JM Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) which was down 4.95% to 114.73 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Forte Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:FBRX) which rose 2,140.58% to 7.73, Exicure Inc (NASDAQ:XCUR) which was up 601.81% to settle at 2.21 and BranchOut Food Inc (NASDAQ:BOF) which gained 145.35% to close at 1.65.

The worst performers were Utime Ltd (NASDAQ:WTO) which was down 96.19% to 0.09 in late trade, SolarMax Technology Inc (NASDAQ:SMXT) which lost 41.38% to settle at 1.70 and ARB IOT Group Ltd (NASDAQ:ARBB) which was down 30.69% to 0.29 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1839 to 960 and 114 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2229 fell and 1067 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 10.89% to 17.11.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.52% or 13.20 to $2,539.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.24% or 0.94 to hit $74.59 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 1.36% or 1.07 to trade at $77.59 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.60% to 1.11, while USD/JPY rose 0.46% to 144.60.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.52% at 100.98.