Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms, Healthcare and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.74%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.94%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.00%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD), which rose 0.46% or 0.37 points to trade at 81.59 at the close. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) added 0.20% or 0.15 points to end at 75.47 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was up 0.01% or 0.02 points to 153.09 in late trade.
Biggest losers included General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which lost 3.80% or 1.04 points to trade at 26.31 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) declined 2.07% or 0.71 points to end at 33.63 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 1.65% or 1.06 points to 63.10.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were ONEOK Inc (NYSE:OKE) which rose 3.65% to 52.60, Monster Beverage 1990 Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) which was up 1.70% to settle at 50.35 and American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) which gained 1.54% to close at 52.05.
The worst performers were L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB) which was down 14.08% to 46.49 in late trade, Patterson Companies Inc (NASDAQ:PDCO) which lost 6.92% to settle at 44.15 and Under Armour Inc A (NYSE:UAA) which was down 6.73% to 20.65 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cerecor Inc (NASDAQ:CERC) which rose 125.40% to 1.397, Kitov Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:KTOV) which was up 42.26% to settle at 2.390 and Verastem Inc (NASDAQ:VSTM) which gained 41.98% to close at 3.450.
The worst performers were Egalet Corportn (NASDAQ:EGLT) which was down 35.83% to 1.63 in late trade, Rand Logistics Inc (NASDAQ:RLOG) which lost 29.30% to settle at 0.3101 and Cerulean Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:CERU) which was down 29.20% to 0.800 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2537 to 603 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1884 fell and 587 advanced, while 161 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 13.01% to 12.51 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.21% or 2.59 to $1224.29 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.38% or 0.17 to hit $45.30 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.09 to trade at $47.88 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.62% to 1.1421, while USD/JPY fell 0.05% to 113.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.40% at 95.59.