Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.55%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.19%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 3M Company (NYSE:MMM), which rose 2.21% or 2.88 points to trade at 133.33 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 2.15% or 2.18 points to end at 103.55 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was up 1.48% or 4.38 points to 299.47 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Unitedhealth Group (NYSE:UNH), which lost 5.21% or 31.82 points to trade at 578.97 in late trade. Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM) declined 1.76% or 6.49 points to end at 361.38 and Sherwin-Williams Co (NYSE:SHW) shed 1.74% or 6.83 points to 385.24.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Brown Forman (NYSE:BFb) which rose 10.66% to 45.37, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) which was up 3.23% to settle at 369.49 and United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL) which gained 3.21% to close at 102.44.
The worst performers were Synopsys Inc (NASDAQ:SNPS) which was down 12.37% to 515.29 in late trade, Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER) which lost 9.58% to settle at 65.25 and Cadence Design Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CDNS) which was down 6.39% to 303.79 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were AgriFORCE Growing Systems Ltd (NASDAQ:AGRI) which rose 10,319.35% to 3.23, Oriental Rise Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:ORIS) which was up 599.25% to settle at 56.01 and Arcadia Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:RKDA) which gained 102.08% to close at 5.45.
The worst performers were Algorhythm Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:RIME) which was down 46.87% to 0.09 in late trade, Universe Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:UPC) which lost 41.34% to settle at 1.05 and Bluebird bio Inc (NASDAQ:BLUE) which was down 39.73% to 0.44 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1710 to 1085 and 91 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2281 fell and 1052 advanced, while 92 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.67% to 13.54.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.81% or 21.71 to $2,654.49 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $68.52 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $72.25 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.74% to 1.06, while USD/JPY fell 0.34% to 150.10.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.55% at 105.71.