Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Technology, Basic Materials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.24%, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), which fell 0.40% or 0.37 points to trade at 92.07 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) fell 0.55% or 1.07 points to end at 192.70 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was down 0.64% or 1.01 points to 157.89 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which lost 4.02% or 1.30 points to trade at 31.04 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 1.91% or 3.08 points to end at 157.87 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) shed 1.86% or 4.19 points to 221.42.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Tractor Supply Company (NASDAQ:TSCO) which rose 2.73% to 54.92, Altaba Inc (NASDAQ:AABA) which was up 2.56% to settle at 62.20 and Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) which gained 1.71% to close at 107.85.
The worst performers were CenturyLink Inc (NYSE:CTL) which was down 7.23% to 19.38 in late trade, NetApp Inc (NASDAQ:NTAP) which lost 6.72% to settle at 39.56 and Automatic Data Processing Inc (NASDAQ:ADP) which was down 5.78% to 104.68 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Spherix Incorporated (NASDAQ:SPEX) which rose 28.37% to 1.8100, Precipio Inc (NASDAQ:PRPO) which was up 28.72% to settle at 5.0200 and DarioHealth Corp (NASDAQ:DRIO) which gained 23.38% to close at 2.270.
The worst performers were Netlist Inc (NASDAQ:NLST) which was down 29.41% to 0.600 in late trade, root9B Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:RTNB) which lost 21.72% to settle at 0.6000 and RLJ Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:RLJE) which was down 16.36% to 2.9610 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2533 to 605 and 95 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2012 fell and 508 advanced, while 109 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 32.28% to 15.53.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.81% or 10.42 to $1293.32 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.53% or 0.25 to hit $47.03 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 1.27% or 0.64 to trade at $50.91 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.37% to 1.1722, while USD/JPY fell 0.59% to 109.54.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.24% at 93.63.