Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Financials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.25%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.31%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.49%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 1.38% or 0.85 points to trade at 62.51 at the close. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 1.16% or 0.78 points to end at 68.24 and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) was up 0.88% or 0.87 points to 99.80 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which lost 1.40% or 1.43 points to trade at 100.72 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 1.05% or 1.78 points to end at 167.52 and EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) shed 0.97% or 0.67 points to 68.11.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance (NASDAQ:ULTA) which rose 11.35% to 266.10, American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) which was up 4.98% to settle at 39.24 and HCA Holdings Inc (NYSE:HCA) which gained 4.46% to close at 80.32.
The worst performers were Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) which was down 4.48% to 22.79 in late trade, Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) which lost 4.35% to settle at 52.81 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which was down 3.98% to 9.65 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were xG Technology Inc (NASDAQ:XGTI) which rose 31.56% to 0.4210, Contravir Pharmaceut (NASDAQ:CTRV) which was up 22.52% to settle at 1.3600 and Voltari Corp (NASDAQ:VLTC) which gained 18.72% to close at 2.600.
The worst performers were Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) which was down 33.97% to 4.66 in late trade, Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PTX) which lost 25.81% to settle at 0.417 and Flex Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:FLKS) which was down 24.73% to 8.43 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2119 to 1052 and 65 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1836 fell and 664 advanced, while 117 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.34% to 16.60.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.42% or 5.30 to $1259.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.50% or 0.25 to hit $50.43 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.39% or 0.20 to trade at $52.01 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.40% to 1.1054, while USD/JPY fell 0.56% to 103.63.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.45% at 97.55.