U.S. shares mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.29%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Telecoms , Technology and Financials sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Consumer Goods , Basic Materials and Utilities sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.29%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.47%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.85%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which rose 2.26% or 1.17 points to trade at 52.92 at the close. Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) added 1.34% or 2.43 points to end at 183.33 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) was up 1.18% or 2.60 points to 222.03 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ), which lost 4.48% or 6.19 points to trade at 131.91 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) declined 3.12% or 11.64 points to end at 361.43 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) shed 1.52% or 3.88 points to 251.13.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Navient Corp (NASDAQ: NAVI ) which rose 10.15% to 15.09, Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE: EW ) which was up 9.94% to settle at 214.88 and WW Grainger Inc (NYSE: GWW ) which gained 9.07% to close at 304.07.

The worst performers were Amphenol Corporation (NYSE: APH ) which was down 6.08% to 92.38 in late trade, Norfolk Southern Corporation (NYSE: NSC ) which lost 5.94% to settle at 184.99 and FLIR Systems Inc (NASDAQ: FLIR ) which was down 4.86% to 52.04 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SigmaTron International Inc (NASDAQ: SGMA ) which rose 39.25% to 3.690, Jiayin Group Inc (NASDAQ: JFIN ) which was up 26.94% to settle at 15.36 and Nuvectra Corp (NASDAQ: NVTR ) which gained 26.70% to close at 2.61.

The worst performers were Obalon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: OBLN ) which was down 40.41% to 0.57 in late trade, Regulus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: RGLS ) which lost 34.82% to settle at 0.743 and Pluristem Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PSTI ) which was down 25.08% to 0.4260 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 2150 to 847 and 98 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1866 rose and 794 declined, while 87 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 4.28% to 12.07 a new 3-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.31% or 4.45 to $1426.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.53% or 0.87 to hit $55.90 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $63.12 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1143, while USD/JPY fell 0.04% to 108.12.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 97.362.