Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.67% to hit a new 1-month low, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.68%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which rose 0.21% or 0.19 points to trade at 88.87 at the close. Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 0.14% or 0.16 points to end at 113.20 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) was down 0.12% or 0.04 points to 33.88 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which lost 2.63% or 2.87 points to trade at 106.10 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 1.86% or 1.76 points to end at 93.10 and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shed 1.54% or 1.28 points to 81.69.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which rose 3.30% to 118.35, Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) which was up 1.86% to settle at 140.84 and Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which gained 1.65% to close at 17.89.
The worst performers were Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN) which was down 4.96% to 7.48 in late trade, Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:FTR) which lost 4.43% to settle at 1.94 and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) which was down 4.23% to 5.890 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Nexvet Biopharma (NASDAQ:NVET) which rose 60.29% to 6.620, China Auto Logistics Inc (NASDAQ:CALI) which was up 25.10% to settle at 2.990 and TrovaGene Inc (NASDAQ:TROV) which gained 21.34% to close at 1.040.
The worst performers were SkyPeople Fruit Juice Inc (NASDAQ:SPU) which was down 43.35% to 2.9400 in late trade, Sorrento Therape (NASDAQ:SRNE) which lost 38.98% to settle at 1.80 and MoSys Inc (NASDAQ:MOSY) which was down 35.57% to 1.2500 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2233 to 949 and 47 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1704 fell and 795 advanced, while 114 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.03% to 16.09 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.85% or 10.85 to $1288.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.09% or 0.05 to hit $53.16 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $55.88 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.47% to 1.0615, while USD/JPY rose 0.13% to 109.17.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.44% at 100.50.