At the close of the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones was down 0.90%, the S&P 500 was down 0.74% and the NASDAQ Composite was down 0.70%.

The leading performer among the components of the Dow Jones index today was Walt Disney Company, which gained 0.83 points (0.90%) to close at 93.38. Verizon Communications Inc rose 0.30 points or 0.81% to close at 37.40. Salesforce Inc rose 0.98 points or 0.75% to close at 131.11.

The least gainers were Chevron Corp shares, which lost 5.54 points or 3.19% to end the session at 168.00. Amgen Inc was up 2.42% or 6.92 points to close at 278.65 while Walmart Inc was down 2.33% or 3.47 points to close at 145.31. .

Leading gainers among the S&P 500 index components in today's trading were Paramount Global Class B, which rose 5.08% to hit 19.02, Tesla Inc, which gained 3.23% to close at 179.05, and also shares of Netflix Inc, which rose 3.14% to close the session at 320.01.

The least gainers were were Schlumberger NV, which shed 5.91% to close at 46.97. Shares of Etsy Inc lost 5.74% to end the session at 126.78. Quotes of Halliburton Company decreased in price by 5.33% to 33.01.

Leading gainers among the components of the NASDAQ Composite in today's trading were HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc, which rose 117.57% to hit 0.54, ClearOne Inc, which gained 73.40% to close at 1.40, and also shares of China Jo-Jo Drugstores Inc, which rose 51.20% to end the session at 3.31.

Shares of Grom Social Enterprises Inc were the biggest losers, losing 66.28% to close at 1.30. Shares of Autolus Therapeutics Ltd shed 38.13% to end the session at 1.85. Quotes Appreciate Holdings Inc fell in price by 33.43% to 2.73.

On the New York Stock Exchange, the number of securities that fell in price (2143) exceeded the number of those that closed in positive territory (958), while quotes of 98 shares remained virtually unchanged. On the NASDAQ stock exchange, 2,359 companies fell in price, 1,374 rose, and 226 remained at the previous close.

The CBOE Volatility Index, which is based on S&P 500 options trading, rose 2.42% to 22.83.

Gold futures for February delivery added 0.36%, or 6.50, to $1.00 a troy ounce. In other commodities, WTI January futures rose 0.10%, or 0.07, to $71.53 a barrel. Futures for Brent crude for February delivery rose 0.72%, or 0.55, to $76.70 a barrel.

Meanwhile, in the Forex market, the EUR/USD pair was unchanged 0.25% to 1.05, while USD/JPY was up 0.02% to hit 136.68.

Futures on the USD index rose 0.17% to 104.93.