Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Industrials, Financials and Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.64%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.63%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which rose 1.99% or 1.19 points to trade at 60.89 at the close. Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 1.47% or 0.50 points to end at 34.51 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) was up 0.90% or 0.31 points to 34.75 in late trade.
Biggest losers included General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), which lost 1.30% or 0.36 points to trade at 27.27 in late trade. Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) declined 1.27% or 1.81 points to end at 140.52 and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) shed 1.27% or 0.88 points to 68.68.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) which rose 20.31% to 214.65, GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) which was up 6.08% to settle at 43.41 and Altera Corporation (NASDAQ:ALTR) which gained 4.00% to close at 48.85.
The worst performers were Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) which was down 6.58% to 64.60 in late trade, United Rentals Inc (NYSE:URI) which lost 6.36% to settle at 88.91 and Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC) which was down 3.08% to 24.51 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Heron Therapeuti (NASDAQ:HRTX) which rose 60.00% to 19.76, Transgenomi (NASDAQ:TBIO) which was up 39.15% to settle at 2.63 and Torchlight Energ (NASDAQ:TRCH) which gained 25.87% to close at 1.070.
The worst performers were KBS Fashion Group Ltd (NASDAQ:KBSF) which was down 25.62% to 3.28 in late trade, CounterPath Corporation (NASDAQ:CPAH) which lost 16.10% to settle at 0.600 and Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) which was down 14.72% to 3.070 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2264 to 865 and 2 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1772 fell and 1016 advanced, while 7 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.43% to 13.90.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.13% or 1.60 to $1190.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 4.58% or 2.64 to hit $60.32 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 4.71% or 2.94 to trade at $65.53 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.34% to 1.0985, while USD/JPY rose 0.13% to 124.11.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.17% at 96.97.