Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Technology and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.34%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.28%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 1.14% or 0.70 points to trade at 62.34 at the close. McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) added 0.94% or 1.14 points to end at 122.02 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) was up 0.46% or 0.24 points to 52.70 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 1.75% or 1.92 points to trade at 107.52 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) declined 1.15% or 0.73 points to end at 62.46 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) shed 0.89% or 0.78 points to 86.31.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) which rose 3.83% to 80.72, AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:ABC) which was up 3.26% to settle at 84.19 and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) which gained 2.76% to close at 77.34.
The worst performers were Cincinnati Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:CINF) which was down 6.74% to 69.84 in late trade, Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) which lost 5.17% to settle at 58.65 and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX) which was down 4.06% to 15.22 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Transgenomi (NASDAQ:TBIO) which rose 326.11% to 1.2059, Cellect Biotechnology Ltd (NASDAQ:APOP) which was up 118.37% to settle at 7.25 and Memorial Production Partners LP (NASDAQ:MEMP) which gained 87.95% to close at 0.245.
The worst performers were Myos Rens Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MYOS) which was down 42.85% to 3.898 in late trade, Fuwei Films Holdings Co Ltd (NASDAQ:FFHL) which lost 37.00% to settle at 2.3436 and DragonWave Inc (NASDAQ:DRWI) which was down 20.69% to 2.3000 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1942 to 1164 and 86 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1702 fell and 777 advanced, while 96 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.31% to 11.52.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.11% or 1.35 to $1195.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.61% or 0.84 to hit $53.09 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.80% or 0.99 to trade at $56.09 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.33% to 1.0618, while USD/JPY fell 0.68% to 114.60.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.29% at 101.41.