Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Health Care and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.34%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.34%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 3.07% or 1.47 points to trade at 49.33 at the close. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) added 1.97% or 1.12 points to end at 57.89 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 1.47% or 2.66 points to 183.43 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 1.92% or 0.65 points to trade at 33.29 in late trade. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) declined 1.66% or 1.55 points to end at 91.79 and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) shed 1.61% or 4.38 points to 267.42.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) which rose 9.63% to 76.18, FLIR Systems Inc (NASDAQ:FLIR) which was up 6.82% to settle at 33.97 and VeriSign Inc (NASDAQ:VRSN) which gained 5.30% to close at 59.97.
The worst performers were Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) which was down 11.51% to 77.87 in late trade, Scana Corporation (NYSE:SCG) which lost 5.31% to settle at 60.47 and Public Service Enterprise Group (NYSE:PEG) which was down 5.30% to 40.59 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were ROI Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:EVRY) which rose 41.94% to 1.320, Recon Technology Ltd (NASDAQ:RCON) which was up 23.92% to settle at 2.590 and Stereotaxis Inc (NASDAQ:STXS) which gained 23.56% to close at 2.150.
The worst performers were Rentrak Corporation (NASDAQ:RENT) which was down 29.68% to 56.62 in late trade, TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV) which lost 23.59% to settle at 4.470 and China HGS Real Estate Inc (NASDAQ:HGSH) which was down 21.45% to 3.150 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1678 to 1116 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1465 fell and 1303 advanced, while 5 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 3.86% to 17.50.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 2.22% or 28.00 to $1234.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 3.08% or 1.55 to hit $52.03 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 2.83% or 1.60 to trade at $58.17 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 1.36% to 1.1322, while USD/JPY rose 1.20% to 118.94.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.17% at 94.77.