U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.07%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Basic Materials , Oil & Gas and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.07%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.22%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.47%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ), which rose 1.72% or 0.49 points to trade at 28.94 at the close. Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ) added 1.61% or 1.69 points to end at 106.40 and Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ) was up 1.60% or 3.07 points to 195.45 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE ), which lost 3.22% or 1.76 points to trade at 52.90 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) declined 1.45% or 3.28 points to end at 223.23 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT ) shed 1.24% or 0.99 points to 78.91.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Frontier Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: FTR ) which rose 3.15% to 1.31, H&R Block Inc (NYSE: HRB ) which was up 3.02% to settle at 30.01 and Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE: HOG ) which gained 2.91% to close at 54.89.

The worst performers were Kroger Company (NYSE: KR ) which was down 18.89% to 24.56 in late trade, Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE ) which lost 7.63% to settle at 54.60 and Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ: WFM ) which was down 6.74% to 33.06 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Adamis Pharma (NASDAQ: ADMP ) which rose 53.33% to 5.75, Valeritas Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: VLRX ) which was up 23.55% to settle at 6.19 and J W Mays Inc (NASDAQ: MAYS ) which gained 18.78% to close at 39.85.

The worst performers were Celsion Corp (NASDAQ: CLSN ) which was down 25.45% to 2.050 in late trade, Adesto Technologies Corp (NASDAQ: IOTS ) which lost 15.62% to settle at 4.05 and KemPharm Inc (NASDAQ: KMPH ) which was down 14.67% to 3.20 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1993 to 1234 and 27 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1553 fell and 947 advanced, while 129 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 2.73% to 10.93.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 1.50% or 19.17 to $1256.73 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.72% or 0.32 to hit $44.41 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.12 to trade at $46.88 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.63% to 1.1147, while USD/JPY rose 1.20% to 110.90.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.58% at 97.47.