U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.49%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas , Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.49%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.38%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.10%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which rose 3.04% or 1.11 points to trade at 37.67 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) added 2.12% or 2.87 points to end at 138.48 and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT ) was up 0.64% or 0.47 points to 72.86 in late trade.

Biggest losers included United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX ), which lost 2.58% or 2.65 points to trade at 100.06 in late trade. Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX ) declined 1.70% or 1.69 points to end at 97.81 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ) shed 1.50% or 0.47 points to 30.84.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC ) which rose 3.12% to 54.94, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) which was up 3.04% to settle at 37.67 and Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI ) which gained 2.59% to close at 131.97.

The worst performers were Range Resources Corporation (NYSE: RRC ) which was down 5.08% to 37.37 in late trade, Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL ) which lost 4.67% to settle at 38.95 and WW Grainger Inc (NYSE: GWW ) which was down 4.26% to 218.22 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Carver Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ: CARV ) which rose 29.53% to 5.000, Stellar Biotechnologies Inc (NASDAQ: SBOT ) which was up 25.68% to settle at 2.790 and Insignia Systems Inc (NASDAQ: ISIG ) which gained 24.41% to close at 2.650.

The worst performers were Novavax Inc (NASDAQ: NVAX ) which was down 84.53% to 1.290 in late trade, Real Goods Solar Inc (NASDAQ: RGSE ) which lost 39.25% to settle at 2.6000 and Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ: GBSN ) which was down 31.14% to 3.9500 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2021 to 1144 and 82 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1335 fell and 1213 advanced, while 84 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.46% to 15.41.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.34% or 4.45 to $1313.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.55% or 0.68 to hit $43.23 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 1.27% or 0.59 to trade at $46.00 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.79% to 1.1155, while USD/JPY rose 0.23% to 102.31.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.83% at 96.07.