U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.11%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.11%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.08%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.04%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ), which rose 1.15% or 0.44 points to trade at 38.74 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) added 1.11% or 0.52 points to end at 47.56 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) was up 1.07% or 1.61 points to 152.52 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ), which lost 1.90% or 2.12 points to trade at 109.69 in late trade. Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE ) declined 1.30% or 0.48 points to end at 36.46 and Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ) shed 1.01% or 0.65 points to 63.59.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK ) which rose 4.71% to 3.780, Concho Resources Inc (NYSE: CXO ) which was up 4.63% to settle at 146.81 and Pioneer Natural Resources Company (NYSE: PXD ) which gained 4.37% to close at 167.20.

The worst performers were Red Hat Inc (NYSE: RHT ) which was down 5.32% to 122.00 in late trade, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (NYSE: CMG ) which lost 4.63% to settle at 298.67 and Nielsen Holdings (NYSE: NLSN ) which was down 3.41% to 36.22 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Net Element Inc (NASDAQ: NETE ) which rose 272.17% to 19.3900, Genetic Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: GENE ) which was up 79.40% to settle at 1.740 and NXT-ID Inc (NASDAQ: NXTD ) which gained 74.73% to close at 3.1800.

The worst performers were ChinaCache International Holdings (NASDAQ: CCIH ) which was down 36.39% to 1.94 in late trade, China Commercial Credit Inc (NASDAQ: CCCR ) which lost 33.85% to settle at 1.7000 and Sorrento Tech Inc (NASDAQ: ROKA ) which was down 31.58% to 0.6500 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1574 to 1522 and 128 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1289 rose and 1232 declined, while 119 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.29% to 9.70.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.36% or 4.50 to $1268.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.87% or 0.50 to hit $58.06 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.14% or 0.73 to trade at $64.53 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.27% to 1.1871, while USD/JPY rose 0.48% to 113.43.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 92.94.