U.S. stocks lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.54% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the fell 0.54%, while the index fell 0.75%, and the index lost 0.72%.

The best performers of the session on the were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:), which rose 9.88% or 15.83 points to trade at 176.07 at the close. Meanwhile, Chevron Corp (NYSE:) added 0.95% or 1.66 points to end at 176.32 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:) was up 0.80% or 1.72 points to 217.57 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Walmart Inc (NYSE:), which fell 2.47% or 3.18 points to trade at 125.45 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE:) declined 1.92% or 2.87 points to end at 146.42 and American Express Company (NYSE:) was down 1.81% or 3.06 points to 165.76.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:) which rose 9.88% to 176.07, HP Inc (NYSE:) which was up 3.86% to settle at 40.34 and Hess Corporation (NYSE:) which gained 3.56% to close at 127.45.

The worst performers were Albemarle Corp (NYSE:) which was down 7.80% to 240.12 in late trade, Moodys Corporation (NYSE:) which lost 6.36% to settle at 282.38 and The Mosaic Company (NYSE:) which was down 6.10% to 58.69 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Missfresh Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:) which rose 51.05% to 0.24, Spark Networks SE ADR (NASDAQ:) which was up 38.39% to settle at 2.92 and Energy Focu (NASDAQ:) which gained 37.42% to close at 1.22.

The worst performers were CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 88.20% to 0.41 in late trade, Janone Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 32.98% to settle at 2.50 and Dogness International Corp Class A (NASDAQ:) which was down 32.75% to 2.69 at the close.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1871 to 1274 and 126 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2417 fell and 1402 advanced, while 165 ended unchanged.

Shares in HP Inc (NYSE:) rose to all time highs; rising 3.86% or 1.50 to 40.34. Shares in Hess Corporation (NYSE:) rose to 5-year highs; up 3.56% or 4.38 to 127.45.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.91% to 25.69.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.08% or 1.55 to $1,849.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.15% or 0.17 to hit $114.84 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.22 to trade at $115.82 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.77% to 1.07, while USD/JPY rose 1.15% to 130.16.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.80% at 102.58.