Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Oil & Gas and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.07%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.22%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which rose 1.72% or 0.49 points to trade at 28.94 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 1.61% or 1.69 points to end at 106.40 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was up 1.60% or 3.07 points to 195.45 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), which lost 3.22% or 1.76 points to trade at 52.90 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 1.45% or 3.28 points to end at 223.23 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) shed 1.24% or 0.99 points to 78.91.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) which rose 3.15% to 1.31, H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which was up 3.02% to settle at 30.01 and Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) which gained 2.91% to close at 54.89.
The worst performers were Kroger Company (NYSE:KR) which was down 18.89% to 24.56 in late trade, Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) which lost 7.63% to settle at 54.60 and Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) which was down 6.74% to 33.06 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Adamis Pharma (NASDAQ:ADMP) which rose 53.33% to 5.75, Valeritas Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VLRX) which was up 23.55% to settle at 6.19 and J W Mays Inc (NASDAQ:MAYS) which gained 18.78% to close at 39.85.
The worst performers were Celsion Corp (NASDAQ:CLSN) which was down 25.45% to 2.050 in late trade, Adesto Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:IOTS) which lost 15.62% to settle at 4.05 and KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ:KMPH) which was down 14.67% to 3.20 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1993 to 1234 and 27 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1553 fell and 947 advanced, while 129 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.73% to 10.93.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 1.50% or 19.17 to $1256.73 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.72% or 0.32 to hit $44.41 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.12 to trade at $46.88 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.63% to 1.1147, while USD/JPY rose 1.20% to 110.90.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.58% at 97.47.