U.S. stocks lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.16% By Investing.com

Investing.com – U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.

At the close in NYSE, the declined 0.16%, while the index fell 0.18%, and the index declined 0.10%.

The best performers of the session on the were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:), which rose 0.91% or 1.87 points to trade at 207.91 at the close. Meanwhile, Nike Inc (NYSE:) added 0.79% or 0.68 points to end at 86.88 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:) was up 0.72% or 1.77 points to 246.98 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were 3M Company (NYSE:), which fell 1.66% or 2.90 points to trade at 172.08 at the close. Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:) declined 1.47% or 1.28 points to end at 85.62 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) was down 1.12% or 1.59 points to 140.55.

The top performers on the S&P 500 were Signet Jewelers Ltd (NYSE:) which rose 5.87% to 17.31, Jefferies Financial Group Inc (NYSE:) which was up 3.47% to settle at 21.44 and EQT Corporation (NYSE:) which gained 2.66% to close at 15.46.

The worst performers were Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 4.60% to 93.60 in late trade, IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:) which lost 4.32% to settle at 149.00 and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 3.58% to 307.00 at the close.

The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB (NASDAQ:) which rose 63.41% to 2.010, Ultra Petroleum Corp (NASDAQ:) which was up 43.45% to settle at 0.265 and Xenetic Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:) which gained 39.20% to close at 12.250.

The worst performers were China SXT Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 22.08% to 3.1400 in late trade, Ascent Capital Group Inc (NASDAQ:) which lost 12.26% to settle at 0.93 and Ideal Power Inc (NASDAQ:) which was down 13.04% to 0.350 at the close.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1518 to 1476 and 25 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1485 rose and 1148 declined, while 94 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 5.65% to 13.28.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 1.36% or 19.30 to $1401.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.68% or 0.39 to hit $57.73 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 1.85% or 1.17 to trade at $64.47 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.52% to 1.1225, while USD/JPY rose 0.63% to 108.47.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.52% at 96.835.