Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.46%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.21%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 1.11% or 2.21 points to trade at 201.01 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 1.02% or 0.80 points to end at 79.52 and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) was up 0.83% or 0.47 points to 56.99 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which lost 6.11% or 3.43 points to trade at 52.70 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 2.16% or 2.98 points to end at 135.17 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) shed 1.75% or 1.38 points to 77.29.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which rose 5.52% to 28.29, AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:ABC) which was up 5.00% to settle at 77.06 and Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE:VMC) which gained 4.40% to close at 129.20.
The worst performers were Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) which was down 24.09% to 29.72 in late trade, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp Class A (NASDAQ:CTSH) which lost 7.72% to settle at 66.61 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) which was down 6.11% to 52.70 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:DFFN) which rose 91.56% to 5.9000, FTD Companies Inc (NASDAQ:FTD) which was up 46.67% to settle at 0.99 and Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ:DMRC) which gained 44.77% to close at 47.92.
The worst performers were VistaGen Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTGN) which was down 46.66% to 0.560 in late trade, Nuvectra Corp (NASDAQ:NVTR) which lost 34.72% to settle at 6.13 and CRA International Inc (NASDAQ:CRAI) which was down 21.20% to 41.12 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1617 to 1345 and 118 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1413 rose and 1203 declined, while 89 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.57% to 14.42.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.97% or 12.45 to $1271.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 3.22% or 2.05 to hit $61.55 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $70.38 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.00% to 1.1177, while USD/JPY rose 0.00% to 111.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 97.588.