U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.02%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.02%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.01%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.21%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE ), which rose 1.35% or 0.57 points to trade at 42.88 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) added 1.14% or 2.80 points to end at 247.67 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) was up 0.76% or 0.37 points to 48.93 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ), which lost 1.06% or 0.77 points to trade at 71.71 in late trade. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) declined 0.98% or 1.51 points to end at 152.29 and Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX ) shed 0.80% or 0.91 points to 112.54.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were General Motors Company (NYSE: GM ) which rose 7.05% to 37.18, PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH ) which was up 6.90% to settle at 105.77 and Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX ) which gained 3.98% to close at 337.59.

The worst performers were Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI ) which was down 9.37% to 46.54 in late trade, Advance Auto Parts Inc (NYSE: AAP ) which lost 3.42% to settle at 159.42 and VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC ) which was down 2.96% to 71.46 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Toughbuilt Industries Inc (NASDAQ: TBLT ) which rose 45.00% to 1.74, SAExploration Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: SAEX ) which was up 28.57% to settle at 5.850 and Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: SNSS ) which gained 26.16% to close at 0.7349.

The worst performers were Phunware Inc (NASDAQ: PHUN ) which was down 42.00% to 91.06 in late trade, Aratana Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PETX ) which lost 26.55% to settle at 4.37 and Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ: AEHR ) which was down 24.06% to 1.420 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1687 to 1339 and 107 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1431 rose and 1205 declined, while 72 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 6.72% to 18.19 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.10% or 1.25 to $1288.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.69% or 0.89 to hit $51.70 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.80% or 1.11 to trade at $60.57 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.29% to 1.1464, while USD/JPY rose 0.07% to 108.50.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 95.268.