Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Industrials and Telecoms sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.04%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.08%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH), which rose 3.65% or 4.28 points to trade at 121.60 at the close. American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) added 1.45% or 1.16 points to end at 80.91 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) was up 1.24% or 0.35 points to 28.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK), which lost 1.04% or 0.61 points to trade at 57.84 in late trade. McDonald`s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) declined 0.84% or 0.81 points to end at 95.63 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) shed 0.81% or 0.81 points to 99.79.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) which rose 18.21% to 562.05, Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) which was up 8.74% to settle at 84.96 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) which gained 3.65% to close at 121.60.
The worst performers were ENSCO plc (NYSE:ESV) which was down 5.19% to 25.20 in late trade, SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) which lost 4.43% to settle at 67.97 and Noble Corporation PLC (NYSE:NE) which was down 3.69% to 17.49 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Identive Group Inc (NASDAQ:INVE) which rose 38.55% to 12.400, MediciNova Inc (NASDAQ:MNOV) which was up 37.72% to settle at 4.834 and China Gerui Advanced Materials (NASDAQ:CHOP) which gained 36.15% to close at 4.030.
The worst performers were Speed Commerce Inc (NASDAQ:SPDC) which was down 28.55% to 0.400 in late trade, Axion Power International Inc (NASDAQ:AXPW) which lost 24.39% to settle at 0.031 and RLJ Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:RLJE) which was down 23.81% to 1.120 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1635 to 1174; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1478 fell and 1296 advanced, while 10 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.95% to 12.59.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.20% or 2.40 to $1198.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.27% or 0.15 to hit $56.54 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.53 to trade at $63.84 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.72% to 1.0759, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 119.11.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.67% at 97.88.