U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.31%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Telecoms , Financials and Consumer Goods sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.31%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.23%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.04%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which rose 0.90% or 0.32 points to trade at 36.07 at the close. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT ) added 0.68% or 0.49 points to end at 72.08 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) was up 0.23% or 0.15 points to 65.86 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM ), which lost 2.02% or 1.69 points to trade at 82.01 in late trade. E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE: DD ) declined 1.60% or 1.31 points to end at 80.33 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM ) shed 1.34% or 1.19 points to 87.84.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC ) which rose 13.15% to 69.59, Martin Marietta Materials Inc (NYSE: MLM ) which was up 3.16% to settle at 218.25 and Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG ) which gained 2.88% to close at 23.91.

The worst performers were Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ: INCY ) which was down 2.98% to 133.67 in late trade, Urban Outfitters Inc (NASDAQ: URBN ) which lost 2.86% to settle at 23.76 and AutoNation Inc (NYSE: AN ) which was down 2.76% to 42.29 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Akari Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ: AKTX ) which rose 58.51% to 11.070, Steadymed Ltd (NASDAQ: STDY ) which was up 46.84% to settle at 5.800 and Dicerna Pharma (NASDAQ: DRNA ) which gained 25.93% to close at 3.400.

The worst performers were Wins Finance Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: WINS ) which was down 35.39% to 144.99 in late trade, Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PTI ) which lost 28.19% to settle at 7.82 and Pulse Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: PLSE ) which was down 24.46% to 20.410 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1906 to 1321 and 32 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1337 rose and 1159 declined, while 123 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 7.45% to 12.40.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.10% or 1.30 to $1246.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.79% or 0.40 to hit $50.75 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.00% or 0.53 to trade at $53.66 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.0660, while USD/JPY fell 0.52% to 111.35.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 100.39.