Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.26%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.39%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 0.93% or 0.67 points to trade at 72.53 at the close. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 0.63% or 0.73 points to end at 115.70 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was up 0.29% or 0.35 points to 122.16 in late trade.
Biggest losers included General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which lost 1.75% or 0.47 points to trade at 26.31 in late trade. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) declined 1.69% or 0.52 points to end at 30.04 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 1.46% or 1.23 points to 83.15.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Johnson Controls Inc (NYSE:JCI) which rose 2.22% to 50.54, Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) which was up 1.87% to settle at 145.12 and Altria Group (NYSE:MO) which gained 1.80% to close at 49.87.
The worst performers were Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) which was down 6.44% to 117.43 in late trade, National Oilwell Varco Inc (NYSE:NOV) which lost 4.98% to settle at 45.06 and Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) which was down 4.30% to 14.92 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Versartis Inc (NASDAQ:VSAR) which rose 29.41% to 18.92, PDI Inc (NASDAQ:PDII) which was up 28.17% to settle at 1.82 and 6D Global Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SIXD) which gained 28.04% to close at 9.59.
The worst performers were Silicom Ltd (NASDAQ:SILC) which was down 25.25% to 27.21 in late trade, Axion Power International Inc (NASDAQ:AXPW) which lost 19.57% to settle at 0.074 and Methes Energies International Ltd (NASDAQ:MEIL) which was down 18.87% to 0.430 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2037 to 1054 and 6 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1584 fell and 1195 advanced, while 4 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.37% to 17.02.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.09% or 1.10 to $1168.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 4.93% or 2.73 to hit $52.78 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 5.83% or 3.52 to trade at $56.80 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.48% to 1.1058, while USD/JPY fell 0.21% to 122.53.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 96.43.