Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Technology, Basic Materials and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Financials and Oil & Gas sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.10%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.01%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT), which rose 1.96% or 1.40 points to trade at 72.84 at the close. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) added 1.83% or 1.05 points to end at 58.53 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) was up 1.12% or 0.98 points to 88.29 in late trade.
Biggest losers included American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), which lost 1.11% or 0.73 points to trade at 64.85 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) declined 0.60% or 1.02 points to end at 168.44 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) shed 0.60% or 0.49 points to 81.46.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) which rose 4.31% to 93.17, Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) which was up 3.67% to settle at 113.13 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) which gained 3.12% to close at 22.15.
The worst performers were Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc (NYSE:DO) which was down 10.61% to 16.51 in late trade, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) which lost 6.32% to settle at 56.88 and Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM) which was down 4.43% to 75.91 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Cynapsus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CYNA) which rose 116.23% to 39.70, Xtera Communications Inc (NASDAQ:XCOM) which was up 58.88% to settle at 0.850 and Hong Kong Highpower Technology (NASDAQ:HPJ) which gained 22.75% to close at 2.860.
The worst performers were Skyline Medical Inc (NASDAQ:SKLN) which was down 13.50% to 0.1583 in late trade, bebe stores inc (NASDAQ:BEBE) which lost 13.42% to settle at 0.6600 and Macrocure Ltd (NASDAQ:MCUR) which was down 13.16% to 1.6500 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1650 to 1485 and 100 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1359 rose and 1129 declined, while 114 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 0.37% to 13.47.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.43% or 5.70 to $1317.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 2.64% or 1.18 to hit $43.52 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 2.41% or 1.13 to trade at $45.76 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.39% to 1.1201, while USD/JPY fell 0.22% to 103.20.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.40% at 95.63.