U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.53%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.53%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.79%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 1.66%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ), which rose 2.53% or 3.53 points to trade at 142.82 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) added 2.48% or 12.06 points to end at 498.65 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ) was up 2.14% or 1.00 points to 47.72 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ), which lost 4.24% or 8.01 points to trade at 180.84 in late trade. American Express Company (NYSE: AXP ) declined 3.86% or 6.94 points to end at 172.95 and Visa Inc Class A (NYSE: V ) shed 3.35% or 6.94 points to 200.29.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY ) which rose 17.59% to 56.15, Mosaic Co (NYSE: MOS ) which was up 7.49% to settle at 59.83 and Kroger Company (NYSE: KR ) which gained 6.97% to close at 58.94.

The worst performers were PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH ) which was down 11.57% to 79.16 in late trade, Aptiv PLC (NYSE: APTV ) which lost 9.41% to settle at 105.87 and United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: UAL ) which was down 9.07% to 36.71 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Atreca Inc (NASDAQ: BCEL ) which rose 211.38% to 5.20, Imperial Petroleum Inc (NASDAQ: IMPP ) which was up 53.64% to settle at 3.38 and VEON Ltd (NASDAQ: VEON ) which gained 52.09% to close at 0.40.

The worst performers were Cerberus Cyber Sentinel Corp (NASDAQ: CISO ) which was down 25.74% to 4.53 in late trade, Cambium Networks Corp (NASDAQ: CMBM ) which lost 24.66% to settle at 20.56 and View Inc (NASDAQ: VIEW ) which was down 23.78% to 1.41 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2128 to 1077 and 146 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2791 fell and 1004 advanced, while 242 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 4.92% to 31.98.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 1.98% or 38.40 to $1,974.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 6.84% or 7.36 to hit $115.03 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 6.85% or 7.57 to trade at $118.03 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 1.26% to 1.09, while USD/JPY fell 0.55% to 114.82.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.72% at 98.50.