Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Telecoms and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.11%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.22%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which rose 0.86% or 1.32 points to trade at 153.95 at the close. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) added 0.85% or 0.69 points to end at 82.61 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 0.77% or 0.49 points to 64.43 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which lost 1.23% or 0.85 points to trade at 68.46 in late trade. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) declined 1.22% or 1.93 points to end at 156.20 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shed 0.93% or 0.73 points to 77.92.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which rose 4.30% to 126.50, Textron Inc (NYSE:TXT) which was up 3.60% to settle at 48.57 and Mylan Inc (NASDAQ:MYL) which gained 3.19% to close at 39.43.
The worst performers were Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) which was down 17.01% to 24.35 in late trade, Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) which lost 9.09% to settle at 1.20 and Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) which was down 7.84% to 37.16 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sangamo Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SGMO) which rose 60.92% to 7.00, Merus Labs International Inc (NASDAQ:MSLI) which was up 51.95% to settle at 1.170 and Real Industry Inc (NASDAQ:RELY) which gained 34.69% to close at 3.30.
The worst performers were TOP SHIPS Inc (NASDAQ:TOPS) which was down 47.71% to 1.8300 in late trade, ITUS Corp (NASDAQ:ITUS) which lost 31.82% to settle at 1.125 and Dextera Surgical Inc (NASDAQ:DXTR) which was down 29.83% to 0.4210 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1931 to 1265 and 41 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1575 fell and 937 advanced, while 93 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 3.72% to 10.59.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.46% or 5.66 to $1224.56 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.01% or 0.48 to hit $47.81 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.06% or 0.53 to trade at $50.75 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.02% to 1.0865, while USD/JPY fell 0.36% to 113.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 99.51.