U.S. shares mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.06%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were mixed at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare , Basic Materials and Technology sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Utilities , Financials and Consumer Services sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.06%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.05%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.04%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ), which rose 0.86% or 0.56 points to trade at 66.02 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) added 0.85% or 1.58 points to end at 186.50 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) was up 0.84% or 1.14 points to 136.05 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ), which lost 1.22% or 2.72 points to trade at 219.77 in late trade. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT ) declined 0.94% or 0.72 points to end at 75.52 and General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ) shed 0.83% or 0.23 points to 27.55.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL ) which rose 8.57% to 50.30, Staples Inc (NASDAQ: SPLS ) which was up 6.24% to settle at 9.20 and CarMax Inc (NYSE: KMX ) which gained 4.62% to close at 62.50.

The worst performers were Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN ) which was down 3.96% to 122.08 in late trade, Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc (NYSE: DPS ) which lost 3.63% to settle at 92.30 and Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ: WLTW ) which was down 2.39% to 145.05 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sphere 3D Corp (NASDAQ: ANY ) which rose 58.47% to 0.256, FalconStor Software Inc (NASDAQ: FALC ) which was up 53.85% to settle at 0.380 and EnerNOC Inc (NASDAQ: ENOC ) which gained 41.67% to close at 7.65.

The worst performers were DryShips Inc (NASDAQ: DRYS ) which was down 33.41% to 2.83 in late trade, Marathon Patent Group Inc (NASDAQ: MARA ) which lost 27.54% to settle at 0.220 and Top Ships Inc (NASDAQ: TOPS ) which was down 21.95% to 0.1600 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1901 to 1328 and 30 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1440 rose and 1054 declined, while 119 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.79% to 10.45.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.46% or 5.72 to $1251.52 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.47% or 0.20 to hit $42.73 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.89% or 0.40 to trade at $45.22 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.15% to 1.1151, while USD/JPY fell 0.06% to 111.32.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.25.