U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.27%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Technology , Industrials and Consumer Services sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.27%, while the S&P 500 index lost 1.44%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 2.06%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ), which rose 1.28% or 0.69 points to trade at 54.65 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE: MRK ) added 0.54% or 0.39 points to end at 72.21 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM ) was up 0.43% or 0.35 points to 81.85 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT ), which lost 3.92% or 5.54 points to trade at 135.80 in late trade. International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM ) declined 2.61% or 3.50 points to end at 130.55 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) shed 2.55% or 4.73 points to 180.44.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Genuine Parts Co (NYSE: GPC ) which rose 5.97% to 100.82, Alliance Data Systems Corp (NYSE: ADS ) which was up 5.51% to settle at 223.11 and Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE: PM ) which gained 3.50% to close at 87.52.

The worst performers were United Rentals Inc (NYSE: URI ) which was down 15.04% to 118.13 in late trade, Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT ) which lost 11.25% to settle at 57.49 and Snap-On Incorporated (NYSE: SNA ) which was down 9.61% to 151.47 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PTI ) which rose 447.62% to 10.35, China Ceramics Co Ltd (NASDAQ: CCCL ) which was up 105.03% to settle at 3.6700 and Endocyte Inc (NASDAQ: ECYT ) which gained 50.29% to close at 23.385.

The worst performers were Auris Medical Holding AG (NASDAQ: EARS ) which was down 27.35% to 0.850 in late trade, LM Funding America Inc (NASDAQ: LMFA ) which lost 23.75% to settle at 3.21 and CDTi Advanced Materials Inc (NASDAQ: CDTI ) which was down 23.26% to 1.7114 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2371 to 705 and 84 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1995 fell and 636 advanced, while 79 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 15.29% to 20.06.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.14% or 1.70 to $1229.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.52% or 1.06 to hit $68.69 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.89% or 0.71 to trade at $79.34 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.39% to 1.1457, while USD/JPY fell 0.43% to 112.19.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 95.69.