Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Dow Jones Utilities, Dow Jones Consumer Goods and Dow Jones Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.45%, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.30%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which rose 2.79% or 6.91 points to trade at 254.91 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) fell 0.04% or 0.03 points to end at 79.97 and AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) was down 0.12% or 0.04 points to 32.92 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which lost 3.83% or 1.61 points to trade at 40.40 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) declined 3.42% or 1.17 points to end at 33.04 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) shed 3.14% or 0.85 points to 26.36.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) which rose 13.71% to 354.53, Biogen Idec Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) which was up 10.17% to settle at 389.16 and Nabors Industries Ltd (NYSE:NBR) which gained 8.48% to close at 11.51.
The worst performers were PACCAR Inc (NASDAQ:PCAR) which was down 6.15% to 60.11 in late trade, Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) which lost 5.76% to settle at 47.32 and PulteGroup Inc (NYSE:PHM) which was down 5.64% to 20.59 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Gulf Resources Inc (NASDAQ:GURE) which rose 47.90% to 1.760, Books-A-Million Inc (NASDAQ:BAMM) which was up 44.83% to settle at 2.520 and Axion Power International Inc (NASDAQ:AXPW) which gained 39.83% to close at 0.81.
The worst performers were ADA-ES Inc (NASDAQ:ADES) which was down 46.47% to 10.61 in late trade, One Horizon (NASDAQ:OHGI) which lost 28.82% to settle at 1.21 and Hawaiian Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HA) which was down 26.97% to 19.44 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2169 to 626; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2088 fell and 686 advanced, while 8 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 11.99% to 21.01.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 2.33% or 29.30 to $1285.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 7.46% or 3.32 to hit $47.85 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 6.95% or 3.42 to trade at $52.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.24% to 1.1291, while USD/JPY fell 0.76% to 117.41.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 95.01.