U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.61%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Telecoms , Healthcare and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.61%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.82%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.75%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ), which rose 5.77% or 9.14 points to trade at 167.44 at the close. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) added 1.81% or 2.94 points to end at 165.26 and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ) was up 1.34% or 1.17 points to 88.46 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ), which lost 4.30% or 2.22 points to trade at 49.35 in late trade. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) declined 2.40% or 2.30 points to end at 93.52 and General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ) shed 2.16% or 0.31 points to 14.07.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Andeavor (NYSE: ANDV ) which rose 13.03% to 138.32, McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD ) which was up 5.77% to settle at 167.44 and Mattel Inc (NASDAQ: MAT ) which gained 4.45% to close at 14.80.

The worst performers were Arconic Inc (NYSE: ARNC ) which was down 20.63% to 17.81 in late trade, Marathon Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: MPC ) which lost 8.01% to settle at 74.91 and Allergan Plc (NYSE: AGN ) which was down 5.18% to 153.65 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Heat Biologics Inc (NASDAQ: HTBX ) which rose 87.72% to 2.140, Steadymed Ltd (NASDAQ: STDY ) which was up 77.36% to settle at 4.700 and Check Cap Ltd (NASDAQ: CHEK ) which gained 41.80% to close at 12.790.

The worst performers were FC Global Realty Inc (NASDAQ: FCRE ) which was down 20.66% to 0.9441 in late trade, Benitec Biopharma Ltd ADR (NASDAQ: BNTC ) which lost 19.88% to settle at 2.6200 and Aytu BioScience Inc (NASDAQ: AYTU ) which was down 18.09% to 0.4650 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1936 to 1137 and 124 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1688 fell and 857 advanced, while 131 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.09% to 16.04.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.49% or 6.50 to $1316.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.50% or 0.34 to hit $68.44 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.08% or 0.80 to trade at $74.59 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.41% to 1.2081, while USD/JPY rose 0.22% to 109.29.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.33% at 91.61.