Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Healthcare and Oil & Gas sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.53%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.54%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO), which rose 1.92% or 1.20 points to trade at 63.84 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 1.50% or 1.50 points to end at 101.25 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was up 1.08% or 1.79 points to 167.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Unitedhealth Group (NYSE:UNH), which lost 3.33% or 17.77 points to trade at 515.76 in late trade. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) declined 2.08% or 8.09 points to end at 380.78 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) shed 1.65% or 6.96 points to 414.42.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) which rose 15.43% to 12.49, CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (NASDAQ:CHRW) which was up 4.46% to settle at 114.00 and West Pharmaceutical Services Inc (NYSE:WST) which gained 4.21% to close at 331.62.
The worst performers were Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) which was down 13.69% to 474.63 in late trade, Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN) which lost 8.19% to settle at 229.11 and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) which was down 5.59% to 65.99 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Palisade Bio Inc (NASDAQ:PALI) which rose 68.57% to 2.36, Sealsq Corp (NASDAQ:LAES) which was up 60.87% to settle at 1.85 and Himax Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:HIMX) which gained 44.93% to close at 9.71.
The worst performers were Sacks Parente Golf Inc (NASDAQ:SPGC) which was down 73.36% to 0.37 in late trade, Keros Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:KROS) which lost 73.15% to settle at 18.43 and Tff Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:TFFP) which was down 60.05% to 0.07 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2076 to 739 and 69 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2338 fell and 970 advanced, while 112 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.50% to 13.92.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.83% or 50.34 to $2,706.36 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.34% or 0.24 to hit $70.05 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.12% or 0.09 to trade at $73.43 a barrel.
EUR/USD was unchanged 0.24% to 1.05, while USD/JPY rose 0.11% to 152.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 106.68.