Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Technology and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.68%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.62%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.94%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ), which rose 1.79% or 1.00 points to trade at 56.85 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) added 0.72% or 0.98 points to end at 137.58 and McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was up 0.59% or 1.17 points to 198.72 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which lost 16.24% or 9.81 points to trade at 50.59 in late trade. Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) declined 2.13% or 1.01 points to end at 46.40 and Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) shed 1.95% or 0.75 points to 37.66.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which rose 16.50% to 69.40, FirstEnergy Corporation (NYSE:FE) which was up 7.59% to settle at 29.48 and Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) which gained 3.24% to close at 78.64.
The worst performers were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) which was down 16.24% to 50.59 in late trade, KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC) which lost 7.70% to settle at 188.21 and Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) which was down 7.17% to 42.85 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Ascena Retail Group Inc (NASDAQ:ASNA) which rose 119.76% to 1.29, Global Eagle Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:ENT) which was up 53.81% to settle at 3.2300 and Cyren Ltd (NASDAQ:CYRN) which gained 36.64% to close at 1.790.
The worst performers were eHealth Inc (NASDAQ:EHTH) which was down 30.55% to 79.17 in late trade, Arbutus Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ:ABUS) which lost 20.00% to settle at 4.96 and US Energy Corp (NASDAQ:USEG) which was down 18.19% to 5.89 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1907 to 905 and 104 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2004 fell and 681 advanced, while 71 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.92% to 25.84.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.53% or 9.95 to $1899.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.66% or 0.27 to hit $41.34 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.03 to trade at $43.34 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.53% to 1.1656, while USD/JPY fell 0.66% to 106.14.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 94.300.