U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 4.06%

Investing.com – U.S. equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas , Industrials and Basic Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 4.06%, while the S&P 500 index fell 3.37%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 3.79%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG ), which rose 2.60% or 2.79 points to trade at 110.17 at the close. The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE: TRV ) added 1.30% or 1.28 points to end at 99.95 and Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ) was down 0.22% or 0.24 points to 109.58 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ), which lost 10.27% or 18.55 points to trade at 162.00 in late trade. Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX ) declined 9.95% or 7.60 points to end at 68.78 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ) shed 8.50% or 8.96 points to 96.40.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Extra Space Storage Inc (NYSE: EXR ) which rose 6.89% to 96.02, AvalonBay Communities Inc (NYSE: AVB ) which was up 6.10% to settle at 160.27 and United Dominion Realty Trust Inc (NYSE: UDR ) which gained 6.04% to close at 37.94.

The worst performers were Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE: NCLH ) which was down 23.49% to 12.02 in late trade, Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL ) which lost 19.14% to settle at 14.41 and Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA ) which was down 15.62% to 4.86 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Top Ships Inc (NASDAQ: TOPS ) which rose 193.12% to 0.2345, BIO-Key International Inc (NASDAQ: BKYI ) which was up 94.41% to settle at 1.0500 and Edtechx Holdings Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: EDTX ) which gained 49.78% to close at 17.00.

The worst performers were Arbutus Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ: ABUS ) which was down 46.46% to 1.21 in late trade, Chanticleer Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: BURG ) which lost 37.97% to settle at 0.4900 and The Michaels Companies Inc (NASDAQ: MIK ) which was down 27.12% to 2.02 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2270 to 640 and 26 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2063 fell and 647 advanced, while 29 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 7.44% to 65.54.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.25% or 20.60 to $1630.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 3.36% or 0.76 to hit $21.84 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 4.86% or 1.28 to trade at $25.06 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 1.04% to 1.1143, while USD/JPY fell 1.50% to 107.94.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 1.04% at 98.422.