U.S. shares lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.98%

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

At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.98%, while the S&P 500 index lost 1.71%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 1.87%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA ), which rose 3.55% or 1.73 points to trade at 50.51 at the close. 3M Company (NYSE: MMM ) added 1.48% or 2.24 points to end at 153.65 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS ) was up 1.13% or 1.29 points to 115.27 in late trade.

Biggest losers included JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM ), which lost 5.17% or 5.89 points to trade at 108.08 in late trade. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE: XOM ) declined 4.83% or 2.42 points to end at 47.69 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) shed 2.99% or 5.94 points to 192.85.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG ) which rose 9.72% to 16.37, Gilead Sciences Inc (NASDAQ: GILD ) which was up 5.39% to settle at 80.23 and Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE: ALK ) which gained 4.03% to close at 45.21.

The worst performers were Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ: FANG ) which was down 16.58% to 48.56 in late trade, Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN ) which lost 16.18% to settle at 13.37 and Cimarex Energy Co (NYSE: XEC ) which was down 15.40% to 24.39 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Spherix Inc (NASDAQ: SPEX ) which rose 130.99% to 1.640, Digirad Corp (NASDAQ: DRAD ) which was up 114.42% to settle at 6.84 and Tocagen Inc (NASDAQ: TOCA ) which gained 56.52% to close at 2.8800.

The worst performers were InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: NVIV ) which was down 62.24% to 1.8500 in late trade, XpresSpa Group Inc (NASDAQ: XSPA ) which lost 43.09% to settle at 0.3700 and Newater Technology Inc (NASDAQ: NEWA ) which was down 32.72% to 2.10 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 2359 to 525 and 34 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2122 fell and 567 advanced, while 40 ended unchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

The CBOE Volatility Index , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 5.86% to 41.94 a new 5-year high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.38% or 6.35 to $1674.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 9.35% or 4.29 to hit $41.61 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 8.90% or 4.45 to trade at $45.54 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.40% to 1.1284, while USD/JPY fell 0.83% to 105.28.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.75% at 96.060.