U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.27% By Investing.com

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

At the close in NYSE, the fell 1.27%, while the index lost 1.47%, and the index lost 1.50%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:), which fell 0.60% or 1.74 points to trade at 288.99 at the close. Dow Inc (NYSE:) fell 0.62% or 0.34 points to end at 54.58 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:) was down 0.71% or 2.64 points to 370.62 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:), which lost 2.83% or 2.66 points to trade at 91.27 in late trade. American Express Company (NYSE:) declined 2.75% or 5.10 points to end at 180.65 and 3M Company (NYSE:) shed 2.43% or 2.58 points to 103.67.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were CVS Health Corp (NYSE:) which rose 1.29% to 77.24, Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:) which was up 1.24% to settle at 138.34 and Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:) which gained 1.13% to close at 139.66.

The worst performers were FedEx Corporation (NYSE:) which was down 12.05% to 246.25 in late trade, Aon PLC (NYSE:) which lost 6.04% to settle at 294.12 and Caesars Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ:) which was down 5.70% to 46.36 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Parazero Technologies Ltd Unit (NASDAQ:) which rose 75.69% to 1.23, Ebang International Holdings (NASDAQ:) which was up 52.75% to settle at 12.48 and Riskon International Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 41.81% to close at 0.20.

The worst performers were Sportsmap Tech Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:) which was down 64.31% to 2.62 in late trade, Bluebird bio Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 45.68% to settle at 1.32 and Esports Entertainment Group Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 41.18% to 0.01 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2279 to 628 and 54 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2476 fell and 975 advanced, while 95 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 9.10% to 13.67 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.46% or 9.35 to $2,042.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.15% or 0.11 to hit $73.83 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $79.19 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.37% to 1.09, while USD/JPY fell 0.13% to 143.63.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 102.09.