Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrials, Basic Materials and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Telecoms, Healthcare and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.85% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.23%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 5.54% or 13.71 points to trade at 261.19 at the close. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) added 2.59% or 5.34 points to end at 211.31 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) was up 2.00% or 3.32 points to 169.02 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 4.53% or 3.84 points to trade at 80.98 in late trade. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) declined 2.43% or 1.07 points to end at 42.99 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 0.79% or 1.12 points to 140.09.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Cigna Corp (NYSE:CI) which rose 9.24% to 175.34, Anthem Inc (NYSE:ANTM) which was up 5.58% to settle at 303.98 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) which gained 5.54% to close at 261.19.
The worst performers were Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM) which was down 7.50% to 29.66 in late trade, Range Resources Corp (NYSE:RRC) which lost 4.75% to settle at 6.12 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) which was down 4.53% to 80.98 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Revolution Lighting Technologies (NASDAQ:RVLT) which rose 132.28% to 0.5800, Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNAT) which was up 38.46% to settle at 0.450 and Immunic Inc (NASDAQ:IMUX) which gained 28.43% to close at 14.05.
The worst performers were Vislink Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:VISL) which was down 56.10% to 1.8000 in late trade, iFresh Inc (NASDAQ:IFMK) which lost 21.51% to settle at 1.35 and Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB (NASDAQ:OASM) which was down 20.80% to 1.790 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1541 to 1478 and 27 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1470 fell and 1165 advanced, while 110 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.77% to 12.93.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.49% or 6.90 to $1405.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $60.44 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $66.78 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.04% to 1.1256, while USD/JPY rose 0.01% to 108.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.00% at 96.700.