Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.67%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.92%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 1.39% or 0.72 points to trade at 52.67 at the close. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) added 0.50% or 0.23 points to end at 45.99 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 0.31% or 0.10 points to 32.04 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which lost 2.14% or 3.28 points to trade at 149.89 in late trade. Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) declined 1.47% or 1.96 points to end at 131.14 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 1.46% or 1.13 points to 76.03.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which rose 12.49% to 24.23, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) which was up 4.38% to settle at 82.47 and CSRA Inc (NYSE:CSRA) which gained 2.36% to close at 24.26.
The worst performers were Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which was down 10.79% to 13.15 in late trade, NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) which lost 10.19% to settle at 14.90 and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which was down 9.43% to 4.420 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sophiris Bio Inc (NASDAQ:SPHS) which rose 69.23% to 1.980, Connecture Inc (NASDAQ:CNXR) which was up 44.54% to settle at 1.720 and Skyline Medical Inc (NASDAQ:SKLN) which gained 38.25% to close at 0.1800.
The worst performers were Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which was down 37.86% to 0.4350 in late trade, Bellerophon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BLPH) which lost 24.58% to settle at 2.270 and China Advanced Construction Materials (NASDAQ:CADC) which was down 16.67% to 2.400 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2612 to 678 and 35 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2010 fell and 541 advanced, while 64 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 15.71% to 16.94 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.40% or 5.15 to $1277.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 3.18% or 1.61 to hit $48.95 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.91% or 1.51 to trade at $50.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.55% to 1.1256, while USD/JPY fell 0.13% to 106.95.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.53% at 94.60.