Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.29%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.22%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which rose 1.51% or 3.10 points to trade at 208.05 at the close. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) added 1.04% or 1.36 points to end at 132.75 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was up 0.65% or 0.53 points to 81.28 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), which lost 1.70% or 2.50 points to trade at 144.85 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declined 1.08% or 0.51 points to end at 46.91 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) shed 1.07% or 0.65 points to 59.45.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) which rose 7.09% to 79.12, Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) which was up 6.71% to settle at 113.00 and Deere & Company (NYSE:DE) which gained 4.33% to close at 93.33.
The worst performers were Ross Stores Inc (NASDAQ:ROST) which was down 4.42% to 97.06 in late trade, Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) which lost 3.37% to settle at 5.16 and Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) which was down 2.16% to 34.35 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ku6 Media Co Ltd (NASDAQ:KUTV) which rose 57.29% to 1.510, Autobytel Inc (NASDAQ:ABTL) which was up 31.36% to settle at 17.930 and Rewalk Robotics Ltd (NASDAQ:RWLK) which gained 21.52% to close at 13.44.
The worst performers were Looksmart Ltd (NASDAQ:LOOK) which was down 24.75% to 0.760 in late trade, China Information Technology Inc (NASDAQ:CNIT) which lost 21.43% to settle at 3.850 and Viggle (NASDAQ:VGGL) which was down 20.39% to 2.46 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2056 to 1066 and 1 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1613 fell and 1154 advanced, while 6 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.33% to 12.15.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.11% or 1.30 to $1205.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.32% or 0.80 to hit $59.92 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.49% or 0.99 to trade at $65.55 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.84% to 1.1018, while USD/JPY rose 0.39% to 121.51.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.79% at 96.22.