Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Consumer Services and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Healthcare and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.17%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.09%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which rose 2.50% or 0.50 points to trade at 20.49 at the close. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 2.05% or 2.10 points to end at 104.78 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) was up 0.84% or 1.14 points to 136.48 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 1.56% or 0.72 points to trade at 45.58 in late trade. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) declined 1.30% or 0.73 points to end at 55.48 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) shed 0.84% or 1.41 points to 165.59.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were News Corp B (NASDAQ:NWS) which rose 5.42% to 15.55, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) which was up 5.27% to settle at 216.14 and News Corp A (NASDAQ:NWSA) which gained 5.15% to close at 15.10.
The worst performers were Johnson Controls International PLC (NYSE:JCI) which was down 4.10% to 36.93 in late trade, Henry Schein Inc (NASDAQ:HSIC) which lost 3.75% to settle at 67.05 and Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE:CAH) which was down 3.32% to 58.55 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cartesian I (NASDAQ:CRTN) which rose 96.30% to 0.510, China Recycling Energy Corp (NASDAQ:CREG) which was up 56.00% to settle at 5.8500 and Ekso Bionics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:EKSO) which gained 45.71% to close at 1.53.
The worst performers were Real Industry Inc (NASDAQ:RELY) which was down 61.76% to 0.65 in late trade, Neovasc Inc (NASDAQ:NVCN) which lost 28.08% to settle at 1.050 and Yulong Eco-Materials Ltd (NASDAQ:YECO) which was down 26.44% to 3.060 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1750 to 1325 and 136 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1319 rose and 1206 declined, while 127 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 6.76% to 11.21.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.87% or 11.20 to $1276.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.58% or 0.33 to hit $56.84 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.48% or 0.31 to trade at $63.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.21% to 1.1667, while USD/JPY rose 0.06% to 113.54.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 94.28.