Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.32%, while the S&P 500 index declined 1.23%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.74%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 0.92% or 3.23 points to trade at 354.93 at the close. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 0.07% or 0.11 points to end at 148.09 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) was down 0.11% or 0.16 points to 141.91 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 3.69% or 1.71 points to trade at 44.64 in late trade. Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) declined 2.76% or 1.44 points to end at 50.77 and International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) shed 2.76% or 3.23 points to 113.97.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX) which rose 2.05% to 206.75, Equifax Inc (NYSE:EFX) which was up 2.10% to settle at 162.53 and Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) which gained 2.03% to close at 329.95.
The worst performers were Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) which was down 7.22% to 15.04 in late trade, Fox Corp Class A (NASDAQ:FOXA) which lost 7.06% to settle at 25.52 and Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC) which was down 6.91% to 34.62 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Imac Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:IMAC) which rose 86.07% to 1.550, EuroDry Ltd (NASDAQ:EDRY) which was up 73.50% to settle at 7.79 and Pyxis Tankers Inc (NASDAQ:PXS) which gained 38.26% to close at 1.160.
The worst performers were Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ:AMTX) which was down 39.26% to 2.1200 in late trade, Tellurian Inc (NASDAQ:TELL) which lost 28.37% to settle at 0.90 and Sundial Growers Inc (NASDAQ:SNDL) which was down 24.35% to 0.29 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2285 to 602 and 68 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1993 fell and 773 advanced, while 57 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 12.49% to 26.38.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.70% or 12.95 to $1874.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 1.01% or 0.42 to hit $41.03 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.82% or 0.36 to trade at $43.44 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.23% to 1.1804, while USD/JPY fell 0.32% to 105.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 92.975.