Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Services, Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.59%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.49%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.80%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 1.42% or 1.19 points to trade at 85.16 at the close. Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) added 1.20% or 0.57 points to end at 48.21 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was up 1.18% or 1.54 points to 131.65 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 1.65% or 0.85 points to trade at 50.72 in late trade. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) declined 1.51% or 3.45 points to end at 224.67 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 1.51% or 1.96 points to 128.16.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) which rose 3.96% to 81.21, Align Technology Inc (NASDAQ:ALGN) which was up 3.43% to settle at 186.54 and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) which gained 3.40% to close at 295.87.
The worst performers were Xilinx Inc (NASDAQ:XLNX) which was down 6.82% to 96.55 in late trade, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which lost 5.53% to settle at 270.75 and MSCI Inc (NYSE:MSCI) which was down 4.10% to 225.73 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Reebonz Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:RBZ) which rose 32.99% to 2.58, Benitec Biopharma Ltd ADR (NASDAQ:BNTC) which was up 18.86% to settle at 0.8201 and Replimune Group Inc (NASDAQ:REPL) which gained 16.75% to close at 16.87.
The worst performers were USA Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:USAT) which was down 34.77% to 4.990 in late trade, Francescas Holdings (NASDAQ:FRAN) which lost 24.80% to settle at 11.16 and AEterna Zentaris Inc (NASDAQ:AEZS) which was down 22.42% to 1.280 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1454 to 1401 and 101 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1346 rose and 1328 declined, while 70 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 9.04% to 15.32.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 1.19% or 17.85 to $1524.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.38% or 0.22 to hit $58.41 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.36% or 0.23 to trade at $64.63 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.1017, while USD/JPY fell 0.40% to 107.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 98.085.