U.S. shares mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.38%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Technology , Financials and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Telecoms , Basic Materials and Industrials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.38% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.15%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.02%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ), which rose 2.85% or 8.22 points to trade at 296.71 at the close. Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) added 1.92% or 3.87 points to end at 205.87 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) was up 1.35% or 0.69 points to 51.69 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ), which lost 4.82% or 9.83 points to trade at 194.27 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ) declined 3.55% or 1.88 points to end at 51.02 and 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) shed 2.56% or 4.45 points to 169.30.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW ) which rose 11.16% to 39.24, Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE: ADM ) which was up 5.70% to settle at 72.27 and Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO ) which gained 4.30% to close at 557.12.

The worst performers were Discovery Inc Class A (NASDAQ: DISCA ) which was down 9.16% to 24.40 in late trade, Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ: ADP ) which lost 8.95% to settle at 197.46 and Discovery Communications C Inc (NASDAQ: DISCK ) which was down 8.92% to 23.88 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ebang International Holdings (NASDAQ: EBON ) which rose 35.44% to 1.090, Sierra Oncology Inc (NASDAQ: SRRA ) which was up 26.28% to settle at 28.64 and Larimar Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: LRMR ) which gained 21.25% to close at 10.500.

The worst performers were Tyme Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: TYME ) which was down 37.46% to 0.3315 in late trade, Cortexyme Inc (NASDAQ: CRTX ) which lost 31.46% to settle at 6.21 and Mainz Biomed BV (NASDAQ: MYNZ ) which was down 28.40% to 14.50 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2211 to 1054 and 120 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2545 fell and 1314 advanced, while 192 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.57% to 31.96 a new 6-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.82% or 33.70 to $1818.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.89% or 1.62 to hit $87.22 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.03 to trade at $88.56 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1241, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 114.65.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.56% at 96.465.