Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Technology, Industrials and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.27%, while the S&P 500 index lost 1.44%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 2.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 1.28% or 0.69 points to trade at 54.65 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 0.54% or 0.39 points to end at 72.21 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) was up 0.43% or 0.35 points to 81.85 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT), which lost 3.92% or 5.54 points to trade at 135.80 in late trade. International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) declined 2.61% or 3.50 points to end at 130.55 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) shed 2.55% or 4.73 points to 180.44.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Genuine Parts Co (NYSE:GPC) which rose 5.97% to 100.82, Alliance Data Systems Corp (NYSE:ADS) which was up 5.51% to settle at 223.11 and Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) which gained 3.50% to close at 87.52.
The worst performers were United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which was down 15.04% to 118.13 in late trade, Textron Inc (NYSE:TXT) which lost 11.25% to settle at 57.49 and Snap-On Incorporated (NYSE:SNA) which was down 9.61% to 151.47 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PTI) which rose 447.62% to 10.35, China Ceramics Co Ltd (NASDAQ:CCCL) which was up 105.03% to settle at 3.6700 and Endocyte Inc (NASDAQ:ECYT) which gained 50.29% to close at 23.385.
The worst performers were Auris Medical Holding AG (NASDAQ:EARS) which was down 27.35% to 0.850 in late trade, LM Funding America Inc (NASDAQ:LMFA) which lost 23.75% to settle at 3.21 and CDTi Advanced Materials Inc (NASDAQ:CDTI) which was down 23.26% to 1.7114 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2371 to 705 and 84 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1995 fell and 636 advanced, while 79 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 15.29% to 20.06.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.14% or 1.70 to $1229.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.52% or 1.06 to hit $68.69 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.89% or 0.71 to trade at $79.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.39% to 1.1457, while USD/JPY fell 0.43% to 112.19.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 95.69.