U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.34%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.34% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.18%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.83%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ), which rose 1.38% or 2.15 points to trade at 158.08 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ) added 1.26% or 1.82 points to end at 146.40 and Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN ) was up 0.97% or 1.92 points to 200.80 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ), which lost 11.74% or 33.46 points to trade at 251.50 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) declined 4.88% or 9.66 points to end at 188.19 and Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ) shed 3.95% or 2.17 points to 52.76.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: VRTX ) which rose 9.66% to 205.00, Xerox Corp (NASDAQ: XRX ) which was up 4.07% to settle at 19.17 and Lennar Corporation (NYSE: LEN ) which gained 3.35% to close at 108.57.

The worst performers were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ) which was down 11.74% to 251.50 in late trade, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH ) which lost 8.82% to settle at 17.79 and Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ: FTNT ) which was down 8.08% to 305.26 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Tantech Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: TANH ) which rose 51.53% to 1.5000, Ucommune International Ltd (NASDAQ: UK ) which was up 48.24% to settle at 0.980 and Arbutus Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ: ABUS ) which gained 44.06% to close at 4.610.

The worst performers were BeyondSpring Inc (NASDAQ: BYSI ) which was down 61.39% to 4.93 in late trade, Aeroclean Technologies LLC (NASDAQ: AERC ) which lost 33.56% to settle at 16.61 and Pioneer Pow (NASDAQ: PPSI ) which was down 30.07% to 7.070 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2395 to 880 and 123 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2879 fell and 878 advanced, while 160 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 14.45% to 31.12 a new 6-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.37% or 6.60 to $1783.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.70% or 0.46 to hit $65.72 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.12 to trade at $68.88 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 1.1319, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 112.78.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 96.043.