U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.29%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.53%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.56%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ), which rose 2.30% or 3.13 points to trade at 139.29 at the close. Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN ) added 1.77% or 4.05 points to end at 232.64 and International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM ) was up 1.67% or 2.07 points to 125.93 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Boeing Co (NYSE: BA ), which lost 4.53% or 8.96 points to trade at 188.85 in late trade. Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM ) declined 2.68% or 5.64 points to end at 204.75 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) shed 1.92% or 0.94 points to 47.93.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Kroger Company (NYSE: KR ) which rose 11.61% to 55.10, Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY ) which was up 9.22% to settle at 110.14 and Brown Forman (NYSE: BFb ) which gained 7.08% to close at 69.41.

The worst performers were EPAM Systems Inc (NYSE: EPAM ) which was down 13.13% to 212.98 in late trade, IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ: IPGP ) which lost 9.08% to settle at 114.00 and Match Group Inc (NASDAQ: MTCH ) which was down 5.71% to 102.99 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were DBV Technologies (NASDAQ: DBVT ) which rose 34.62% to 1.75, Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp (NASDAQ: TNXP ) which was up 33.07% to settle at 0.25 and Apptech Corp (NASDAQ: APCX ) which gained 28.04% to close at 1.37.

The worst performers were NuCana PLC (NASDAQ: NCNA ) which was down 59.18% to 1.20 in late trade, VEON Ltd (NASDAQ: VEON ) which lost 41.19% to settle at 0.26 and Grab Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ: GRAB ) which was down 37.28% to 3.28 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1836 to 1360 and 158 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2569 fell and 1254 advanced, while 237 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 0.85% to 30.48.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.83% or 16.00 to $1,938.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 2.30% or 2.54 to hit $108.06 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.21% or 0.23 to trade at $110.64 a barrel.

EUR/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 1.11, while USD/JPY rose 0.00% to 115.46.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.33% at 97.74.