Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms, Healthcare and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Consumer Services, Oil & Gas and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.19%, while the S&P 500 index gained 0.00%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.07%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which rose 1.84% or 2.55 points to trade at 141.07 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) added 1.14% or 0.95 points to end at 83.97 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was up 0.97% or 2.24 points to 232.85 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which lost 2.56% or 3.50 points to trade at 133.30 in late trade. Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) declined 1.17% or 2.71 points to end at 228.12 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) shed 0.85% or 1.85 points to 215.23.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Cigna Corp (NYSE:CI) which rose 2.66% to 164.71, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which was up 2.62% to settle at 45.79 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which gained 2.61% to close at 105.67.
The worst performers were Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) which was down 6.71% to 52.94 in late trade, Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE:DRI) which lost 5.07% to settle at 120.68 and Noble Energy Inc (NYSE:NBL) which was down 3.88% to 23.30 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Stellar Biotechnologies Inc (NASDAQ:EDSA) which rose 22.28% to 7.520, Westwater Resources Inc (NASDAQ:WWR) which was up 22.26% to settle at 3.7900 and Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ:AMTX) which gained 18.00% to close at 1.1800.
The worst performers were VBI Vaccines Inc (NASDAQ:VBIV) which was down 26.86% to 0.492 in late trade, Applied DNA Sciences Inc (NASDAQ:APDN) which lost 25.76% to settle at 0.301 and Bionano Genomics Inc (NASDAQ:BNGO) which was down 20.06% to 0.85 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1468 to 1430 and 89 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1547 fell and 1108 advanced, while 96 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.72% to 14.05.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.62% or 9.40 to $1506.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.05% or 0.61 to hit $58.65 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.09 to trade at $64.82 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.1043, while USD/JPY rose 0.02% to 108.03.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 97.942.