U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.63%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.63%, while the S&P 500 index declined 1.65%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 1.60%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ), which fell 0.06% or 0.09 points to trade at 143.99 at the close. Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO ) fell 0.45% or 0.27 points to end at 60.05 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) was down 0.54% or 1.49 points to 272.29 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ), which lost 4.86% or 6.11 points to trade at 119.50 in late trade. Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) declined 4.17% or 8.54 points to end at 196.16 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ) shed 3.10% or 1.04 points to 32.50.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Match Group Inc (NASDAQ: MTCH ) which rose 2.27% to 39.22, Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD ) which was up 1.72% to settle at 97.58 and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA ) which gained 1.03% to close at 264.68.

The worst performers were First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC ) which was down 15.85% to 13.27 in late trade, Comerica Inc (NYSE: CMA ) which lost 8.45% to settle at 44.52 and Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE: LNC ) which was down 7.90% to 20.75 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Maxpro Capital Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: JMAC ) which rose 56.84% to 13.88, Lixiang Education Holding Co Ltd (NASDAQ: LXEH ) which was up 35.14% to settle at 1.00 and EZGO Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: EZGO ) which gained 33.65% to close at 1.41.

The worst performers were Qutoutiao Inc (NASDAQ: QTT ) which was down 38.43% to 0.18 in late trade, Color Star Technology Co Ltd (NASDAQ: ADD ) which lost 36.48% to settle at 1.55 and Meihua International Medical Technologies Co Ltd (NASDAQ: MHUA ) which was down 33.60% to 8.20 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2270 to 732 and 111 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2699 fell and 935 advanced, while 145 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.12% to 22.26.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.66% or 32.20 to $1,973.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.36% or 0.25 to hit $69.92 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at $75.78 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 1.09, while USD/JPY fell 0.02% to 131.41.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.69% at 102.18.