Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Technology and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.07%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.16%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.52%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.71% or 3.47 points to trade at 205.82 at the close. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) added 1.16% or 0.67 points to end at 58.29 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was up 0.62% or 1.51 points to 245.39 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 3.29% or 1.74 points to trade at 51.14 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) declined 2.53% or 1.42 points to end at 54.75 and 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) shed 1.30% or 2.19 points to 166.66.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) which rose 2.17% to 181.33, Ventas Inc (NYSE:VTR) which was up 2.03% to settle at 66.76 and CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which gained 1.91% to close at 46.00.
The worst performers were Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:SIG) which was down 5.96% to 17.98 in late trade, F5 Networks Inc (NASDAQ:FFIV) which lost 5.65% to settle at 136.93 and Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) which was down 5.57% to 265.93 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were SSLJ.com Ltd (NASDAQ:YGTY) which rose 32.80% to 3.3200, ArQule Inc (NASDAQ:ARQL) which was up 30.37% to settle at 8.200 and Puyi Inc ADR (NASDAQ:PUYI) which gained 26.07% to close at 7.98.
The worst performers were Sellas Life Sciences Group Inc (NASDAQ:SLS) which was down 57.49% to 0.1600 in late trade, Novus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NVUS) which lost 19.85% to settle at 1.0500 and Seres Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:MCRB) which was down 19.43% to 2.28 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1813 to 1180 and 32 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1695 fell and 967 advanced, while 81 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 3.41% to 15.28.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.12% or 1.65 to $1345.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.46% or 0.24 to hit $52.52 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 1.21% or 0.74 to trade at $62.05 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.59% to 1.1209, while USD/JPY rose 0.17% to 108.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.56% at 97.540.