Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Industrials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.42%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.36%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), which rose 0.89% or 1.12 points to trade at 127.18 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 0.40% or 0.32 points to end at 80.01 and EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) was up 0.25% or 0.17 points to 67.85 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 3.98% or 1.42 points to trade at 34.27 in late trade. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) declined 1.63% or 1.05 points to end at 63.43 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) shed 1.33% or 0.77 points to 56.99.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) which rose 10.89% to 29.93, United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which was up 9.15% to settle at 76.25 and Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) which gained 8.28% to close at 171.53.
The worst performers were Southwest Airlines Company (NYSE:LUV) which was down 11.21% to 37.32 in late trade, Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) which lost 6.90% to settle at 290.63 and Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE:IPG) which was down 5.86% to 22.81 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solution (NASDAQ:KONE) which rose 334.52% to 7.300, Relypsa Inc (NASDAQ:RLYP) which was up 58.96% to settle at 31.95 and China Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology Ltd (NASDAQ:CNTF) which gained 48.60% to close at 2.6600.
The worst performers were Essendant Inc (NASDAQ:ESND) which was down 36.57% to 20.61 in late trade, Globus Maritime Ltd (NASDAQ:GLBS) which lost 33.75% to settle at 0.5300 and Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) which was down 32.76% to 9.360 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1886 to 1380 and 35 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1601 fell and 965 advanced, while 68 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 7.99% to 12.71.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.94% or 12.45 to $1331.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 2.62% or 1.20 to hit $44.55 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 2.35% or 1.11 to trade at $46.06 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.08% to 1.1023, while USD/JPY fell 1.04% to 105.77.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.22% at 96.95.