Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Industrials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.80%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.63%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.88%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 1.12% or 0.54 points to trade at 48.63 at the close. Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) added 0.78% or 0.59 points to end at 76.44 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) was up 0.72% or 0.60 points to 84.21 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 2.52% or 3.60 points to trade at 139.53 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) declined 2.38% or 1.27 points to end at 52.19 and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) shed 2.15% or 2.70 points to 122.59.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) which rose 14.79% to 107.06, Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) which was up 9.74% to settle at 28.73 and Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE:FRT) which gained 3.55% to close at 123.69.
The worst performers were Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) which was down 5.41% to 19.92 in late trade, United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which lost 5.26% to settle at 153.18 and Concho Resources Inc (NYSE:CXO) which was down 5.28% to 124.47 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ability Inc (NASDAQ:ABIL) which rose 110.65% to 4.55, Xenetic Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:XBIO) which was up 50.63% to settle at 3.600 and Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASCMA) which gained 46.47% to close at 2.49.
The worst performers were InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NVIV) which was down 44.51% to 1.87 in late trade, Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which lost 35.91% to settle at 8.0300 and CLPS Inc (NASDAQ:CLPS) which was down 21.96% to 13.11 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2093 to 967 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1839 fell and 739 advanced, while 99 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 14.46% to 14.64.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.38% or 4.90 to $1269.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.15% or 0.10 to hit $65.81 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.11% or 1.58 to trade at $73.16 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.27% to 1.1605, while USD/JPY fell 0.34% to 109.99.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 94.51.