U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.44%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.44%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.38%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.67%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW ), which rose 2.52% or 1.20 points to trade at 48.76 at the close. Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ) added 1.39% or 3.38 points to end at 247.02 and Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO ) was up 1.21% or 0.56 points to 46.85 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ), which lost 2.47% or 1.66 points to trade at 65.45 in late trade. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) declined 1.94% or 4.60 points to end at 232.73 and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) shed 1.53% or 2.86 points to 184.42.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were E-TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC ) which rose 21.81% to 54.73, Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE: XEC ) which was up 6.49% to settle at 43.30 and Albemarle Corp (NYSE: ALB ) which gained 5.56% to close at 94.31.

The worst performers were ViacomCBS Inc (NASDAQ: VIAC ) which was down 17.89% to 29.29 in late trade, Copart Inc (NASDAQ: CPRT ) which lost 6.89% to settle at 97.30 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH ) which was down 6.75% to 48.51 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Tocagen Inc (NASDAQ: TOCA ) which rose 85.45% to 0.9000, Vical Inc (NASDAQ: BBI ) which was up 68.13% to settle at 3.060 and Stampscom Inc (NASDAQ: STMP ) which gained 65.50% to close at 157.99.

The worst performers were Tivity Health Inc (NASDAQ: TVTY ) which was down 45.49% to 12.50 in late trade, AEterna Zentaris Inc (NASDAQ: AEZS ) which lost 25.00% to settle at 1.020 and Viveve Medical Inc (NASDAQ: VIVE ) which was down 20.00% to 1.4400 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 1637 to 1157 and 103 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1469 rose and 1167 declined, while 83 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 8.21% to 15.56.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.65% or 10.45 to $1622.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.45% or 0.24 to hit $53.73 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $59.04 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.03% to 1.0786, while USD/JPY fell 0.03% to 112.08.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 99.812.