U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.84%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Utilities , Financials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.84%, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.60%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.95%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ), which rose 3.88% or 4.33 points to trade at 116.04 at the close. Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ) added 2.06% or 0.59 points to end at 29.24 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ) was up 1.31% or 0.59 points to 45.75 in late trade.

Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE: AXP ), which lost 5.16% or 4.66 points to trade at 85.61 in late trade. Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) declined 4.79% or 9.39 points to end at 186.71 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ) shed 4.35% or 5.00 points to 110.00.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Noble Energy Inc (NASDAQ: NBL ) which rose 13.75% to 6.04, Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE: XEC ) which was up 13.26% to settle at 16.83 and Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG ) which gained 11.06% to close at 26.20.

The worst performers were DXC Technology Co (NYSE: DXC ) which was down 9.63% to 13.05 in late trade, VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC ) which lost 9.49% to settle at 54.08 and Kohls Corp (NYSE: KSS ) which was down 8.98% to 14.59 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SG Blocks Inc (NASDAQ: SGBX ) which rose 351.46% to 9.3000, Vivus Inc (NASDAQ: VVUS ) which was up 277.00% to settle at 3.600 and Greenland Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: GTEC ) which gained 117.11% to close at 3.30.

The worst performers were Amarin Corporation PLC (NASDAQ: AMRN ) which was down 70.54% to 4.00 in late trade, Top Ships Inc (NASDAQ: TOPS ) which lost 54.49% to settle at 0.2457 and Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: SHIP ) which was down 54.29% to 0.1520 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1596 to 1269 and 51 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1357 rose and 1327 declined, while 64 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.20% to 53.54.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 3.19% or 52.35 to $1590.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.05% or 0.01 to hit $20.10 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.19% or 0.05 to trade at $25.91 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.07% to 1.1037, while USD/JPY rose 0.03% to 107.56.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 98.977.