Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Consumer Services and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.09%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.21%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 1.28% or 2.47 points to trade at 195.24 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) added 0.63% or 1.49 points to end at 237.29 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) was up 0.52% or 1.03 points to 200.89 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM), which lost 1.43% or 1.15 points to trade at 79.01 in late trade. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) declined 1.21% or 0.50 points to end at 40.89 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 1.09% or 1.45 points to 131.35.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) which rose 5.09% to 227.82, H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which was up 3.27% to settle at 24.95 and Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) which gained 2.28% to close at 46.22.
The worst performers were Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which was down 8.08% to 2.730 in late trade, Noble Energy Inc (NYSE:NBL) which lost 5.39% to settle at 21.42 and EOG Resources Inc (NYSE:EOG) which was down 5.37% to 86.44 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were AquaBounty Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AQB) which rose 118.30% to 4.890, Pulmatrix Inc (NASDAQ:PULM) which was up 39.37% to settle at 1.770 and Alliqua BioMedical Inc (NASDAQ:ALQA) which gained 35.91% to close at 3.520.
The worst performers were Bio Path Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BPTH) which was down 45.96% to 21.000 in late trade, CHF Solutions Inc (NASDAQ:CHFS) which lost 45.57% to settle at 4.300 and Altimmune Inc (NASDAQ:ALT) which was down 36.56% to 2.880 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1652 to 1304 and 133 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1399 fell and 1225 advanced, while 96 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 7.65% to 16.05.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.98% or 12.65 to $1298.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.11% or 0.63 to hit $56.03 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.92% or 0.61 to trade at $65.69 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.05% to 1.1243, while USD/JPY fell 0.36% to 111.17.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.31% at 97.322.