U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.54%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare , Financials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.54%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.75%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.72%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ), which rose 9.88% or 15.83 points to trade at 176.07 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX ) added 0.95% or 1.66 points to end at 176.32 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) was up 0.80% or 1.72 points to 217.57 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ), which lost 2.47% or 3.18 points to trade at 125.45 in late trade. 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) declined 1.92% or 2.87 points to end at 146.42 and American Express Company (NYSE: AXP ) shed 1.81% or 3.06 points to 165.76.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ) which rose 9.88% to 176.07, HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ ) which was up 3.86% to settle at 40.34 and Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES ) which gained 3.56% to close at 127.45.

The worst performers were Albemarle Corp (NYSE: ALB ) which was down 7.80% to 240.12 in late trade, Moodys Corporation (NYSE: MCO ) which lost 6.36% to settle at 282.38 and The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS ) which was down 6.10% to 58.69 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Missfresh Ltd ADR (NASDAQ: MF ) which rose 51.05% to 0.25, Spark Networks SE ADR (NASDAQ: LOV ) which was up 38.39% to settle at 2.92 and Energy Focu (NASDAQ: EFOI ) which gained 37.42% to close at 1.22.

The worst performers were CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: CASI ) which was down 88.20% to 0.41 in late trade, Janone Inc (NASDAQ: JAN ) which lost 32.98% to settle at 2.50 and Dogness International Corp Class A (NASDAQ: DOGZ ) which was down 32.75% to 2.69 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1871 to 1313 and 133 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2417 fell and 1383 advanced, while 197 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.91% to 25.69.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.08% or 1.55 to $1,849.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.15% or 0.17 to hit $114.84 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.22 to trade at $115.82 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.77% to 1.07, while USD/JPY rose 1.15% to 130.16.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.80% at 102.58.