U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 1.94%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.94%, while the S&P 500 index declined 2.38%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 2.75%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD ), which rose 0.78% or 2.33 points to trade at 299.86 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE: UNH ) fell 0.83% or 4.10 points to end at 489.43 and 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) was down 0.85% or 1.24 points to 144.18 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ), which lost 4.23% or 5.90 points to trade at 133.73 in late trade. Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ) declined 3.76% or 4.04 points to end at 103.30 and Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) shed 3.60% or 5.32 points to 142.64.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ: NXPI ) which rose 4.04% to 184.22, Pool Corporation (NASDAQ: POOL ) which was up 2.34% to settle at 416.39 and Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG ) which gained 1.70% to close at 237.71.

The worst performers were Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA ) which was down 9.76% to 134.04 in late trade, Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL ) which lost 9.28% to settle at 11.73 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH ) which was down 9.17% to 13.76 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Powerbridge Technologies Co Ltd (NASDAQ: PBTS ) which rose 189.86% to 1.12, Nextplay Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: NXTP ) which was up 93.43% to settle at 0.35 and DBV Technologies (NASDAQ: DBVT ) which gained 79.56% to close at 3.25.

The worst performers were Cerberus Cyber Sentinel Corp (NASDAQ: CISO ) which was down 42.59% to 5.27 in late trade, Integrated Media Technology Ltd (NASDAQ: IMTE ) which lost 27.40% to settle at 2.65 and Transphorm Technology Inc (NASDAQ: TGAN ) which was down 25.64% to 4.90 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2712 to 512 and 87 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2788 fell and 1065 advanced, while 195 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 8.89% to 26.09.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.31% or 5.80 to $1,850.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.70% or 0.86 to hit $121.25 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.61% or 0.75 to trade at $122.83 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.91% to 1.06, while USD/JPY rose 0.14% to 134.43.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.76% at 103.32.