U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 3.15%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Tuesday, as losses in the Basic Materials , Oil & Gas and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.15% to hit a new 3-month low, while the S&P 500 index lost 3.03%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 2.77%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ), which fell 0.67% or 1.42 points to trade at 212.10 at the close. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) fell 0.86% or 1.26 points to end at 144.65 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) was down 0.97% or 2.32 points to 237.38 in late trade.

Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE: AXP ), which lost 5.69% or 7.29 points to trade at 120.90 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX ) declined 5.30% or 7.77 points to end at 138.81 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) shed 5.23% or 10.39 points to 188.40.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ ) which rose 5.66% to 23.35, Xerox Corp (NYSE: XRX ) which was up 4.59% to settle at 36.46 and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: REGN ) which gained 3.99% to close at 442.35.

The worst performers were American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL ) which was down 9.16% to 23.12 in late trade, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY ) which lost 8.33% to settle at 36.19 and Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE: LUV ) which was down 8.22% to 49.66 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Spherix Inc (NASDAQ: SPEX ) which rose 136.89% to 2.440, Nemaura Medical Inc (NASDAQ: NMRD ) which was up 76.29% to settle at 5.80 and Cocrystal Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: COCP ) which gained 64.66% to close at 2.1900.

The worst performers were Imv Inc (NASDAQ: IMV ) which was down 39.96% to 2.87 in late trade, Cornerstone OnDemand Inc (NASDAQ: CSOD ) which lost 28.39% to settle at 39.42 and Lipocine Inc (NASDAQ: LPCN ) which was down 27.60% to 0.5575 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2621 to 280 and 33 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2354 fell and 336 advanced, while 51 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 11.27% to 27.85 a new 52-week high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 2.36% or 39.55 to $1637.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 2.61% or 1.34 to hit $50.09 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.04 to trade at $54.30 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.0882, while USD/JPY rose 0.01% to 110.19.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 98.912.