Investing.com – U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Healthcare and Oil & Gas sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.20%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.18%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.18%.
The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.03% or 1.29 points to trade at 126.53 at the close. Meanwhile, American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) added 0.57% or 0.35 points to end at 61.42 and General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) was up 0.49% or 0.15 points to 30.59 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which fell 1.65% or 0.53 points to trade at 31.61 at the close. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) declined 1.07% or 0.31 points to end at 28.65 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) was down 0.66% or 0.74 points to 111.81.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which rose 7.74% to 11.00, Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) which was up 3.85% to settle at 9.45 and Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) which gained 3.50% to close at 94.56.
The worst performers were Perrigo Co (NYSE:PRGO) which was down 9.19% to 98.19 in late trade, Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) which lost 4.98% to settle at 30.90 and Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) which was down 3.07% to 97.85 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were MoSys Inc (NASDAQ:MOSY) which rose 41.82% to 0.4680, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (NASDAQ:HMNY) which was up 34.18% to settle at 13.270 and Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AEGR) which gained 28.57% to close at 1.71.
The worst performers were Towerstream Corporation (NASDAQ:TWER) which was down 35.48% to 0.2000 in late trade, Carbylan Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CBYL) which lost 31.18% to settle at 0.7845 and Sino-Global Shipping America Ltd (NASDAQ:SINO) which was down 15.66% to 0.6916 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1976 to 1326 and 33 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1362 rose and 1176 declined, while 77 ended unchanged.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.46% to 20.20.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.64% or 8.30 to $1296.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 2.00% or 0.97 to hit $47.52 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.41% or 1.20 to trade at $48.63 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.48% to 1.1261, while USD/JPY fell 0.14% to 105.96.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.39% at 94.66.