Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.44%, while the S&P 500 index fell 1.40%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were United Technologies Corporation (N:UTX), which rose 0.98% or 0.96 points to trade at 99.22 at the close. Cisco Systems Inc (O:CSCO) added 0.11% or 0.03 points to end at 27.85 and Walt Disney Company (N:DIS) was down 0.27% or 0.31 points to 116.21 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (N:CAT), which lost 4.52% or 3.25 points to trade at 68.66 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corporation (N:XOM) declined 2.71% or 2.21 points to end at 79.41 and Chevron Corporation (N:CVX) shed 2.53% or 2.33 points to 89.86.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Kohl`s Corporation (N:KSS) which rose 6.09% to 45.79, Nordstrom Inc (N:JWN) which was up 1.85% to settle at 63.47 and Verisk Analytics Inc (O:VRSK) which gained 1.51% to close at 71.93.
The worst performers were Advance Auto Parts Inc (N:AAP) which was down 15.43% to 164.64 in late trade, Mallinckrodt (N:MNK) which lost 6.50% to settle at 53.41 and CONSOL Energy Inc (N:CNX) which was down 5.94% to 7.12 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Tech (O:HART) which rose 117.46% to 1.37, ANADIGICS Inc (O:ANAD) which was up 41.17% to settle at 0.339 and Skyline Medical Inc (O:SKLN) which gained 27.00% to close at 4.7499.
The worst performers were Discovery Laboratories Inc (O:DSCO) which was down 40.43% to 0.28 in late trade, Amedica Cor (O:AMDA) which lost 32.73% to settle at 0.122 and Derma Sciences Inc (O:DSCI) which was down 27.86% to 4.04 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2729 to 715 and 6 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2035 fell and 597 advanced, while 46 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 13.45% to 18.22 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.13% or 1.40 to $1083.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 3.00% or 1.29 to hit $41.64 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 3.13% or 1.46 to trade at $45.15 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.73% to 1.0821, while USD/JPY fell 0.24% to 122.56.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.50% at 98.56.