Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Utilities, Telecoms and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.05%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.21%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), which rose 1.90% or 1.25 points to trade at 67.00 at the close. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) added 1.27% or 1.21 points to end at 96.43 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) was up 0.76% or 0.53 points to 70.40 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which lost 1.17% or 0.59 points to trade at 50.03 in late trade. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) declined 1.05% or 0.52 points to end at 49.14 and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) shed 0.87% or 0.49 points to 55.99.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) which rose 4.41% to 106.00, CF Industries Holdings Inc (NYSE:CF) which was up 4.41% to settle at 29.85 and TripAdvisor Inc (NASDAQ:TRIP) which gained 3.63% to close at 66.87.
The worst performers were Roper Technologies Inc (NYSE:ROP) which was down 5.67% to 172.71 in late trade, Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) which lost 3.91% to settle at 126.15 and Mallinckrodt (NYSE:MNK) which was down 2.92% to 59.23 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were xG Technology Inc (NASDAQ:XGTI) which rose 96.51% to 0.2250, BreitBurn Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:BBEP) which was up 60.88% to settle at 0.1250 and XenoPort Inc (NASDAQ:XNPT) which gained 56.36% to close at 6.88.
The worst performers were Hailiang Education Group Inc (NASDAQ:HLG) which was down 48.43% to 4.28 in late trade, Prism Technologies Group Inc (NASDAQ:PRZM) which lost 21.74% to settle at 0.1800 and KBS Fashion Group Ltd (NASDAQ:KBSF) which was down 19.99% to 0.1601 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1660 to 1644 and 37 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1354 rose and 1194 declined, while 74 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.28% to 15.85.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.26% or 3.30 to $1249.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.64% or 0.31 to hit $48.10 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.72% or 0.35 to trade at $48.37 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.06% to 1.1216, while USD/JPY fell 0.78% to 109.27.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 95.27.