Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Services, Consumer Goods and Telecoms sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.13%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.21%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 1.03% or 0.32 points to trade at 31.24 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 0.90% or 0.56 points to end at 62.71 and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) was up 0.78% or 0.83 points to 107.44 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which lost 2.03% or 1.62 points to trade at 78.34 in late trade. United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) declined 1.48% or 1.73 points to end at 115.30 and The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) shed 1.25% or 1.59 points to 125.57.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:SIG) which rose 16.67% to 60.54, PVH Corp (NYSE:PVH) which was up 5.73% to settle at 126.92 and Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) which gained 5.62% to close at 78.50.
The worst performers were JM Smucker Company (NYSE:SJM) which was down 9.54% to 107.51 in late trade, Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) which lost 8.10% to settle at 21.10 and Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) which was down 5.39% to 32.09 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cerecor Inc (NASDAQ:CERC) which rose 36.07% to 0.830, Caredx Inc (NASDAQ:CDNA) which was up 33.02% to settle at 2.860 and LiNiu Technology Group (NASDAQ:LINU) which gained 27.92% to close at 0.256.
The worst performers were Diana Containerships Inc (NASDAQ:DCIX) which was down 36.57% to 1.1500 in late trade, Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMNP) which lost 34.09% to settle at 1.4500 and Burcon Nutrascience Corp (NASDAQ:BUR) which was down 14.95% to 0.516 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1551 to 1501 and 184 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1496 rose and 956 declined, while 171 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.41% to 12.30.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.24% or 3.15 to $1291.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.63% or 0.79 to hit $47.62 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.72% or 0.38 to trade at $52.19 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.05% to 1.1802, while USD/JPY rose 0.48% to 109.55.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 93.22.