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May 4, 2017: The S&P 500 closed slightly higher on the day, up 0.06% and 1.42 points to 2,389.55. Separately the DJIA closed down 0.03% on the day at 20,951.17, down approximately 6.73 points.

Thursday was yet another flat day for the markets, with oil as the main deterrent, keeping the markets from going positive on the day. Oil & gas stocks were entirely down on the day with crude oil trading down close to 5%. Major telecom stocks and major semiconductor stocks were also down but not nearly as bad as oil & gas stocks. On the other hand, there were a fair amount of green arrows in the health care sector and utilities. Apart from this, the beverage industry was very positive as well as the business service industry.

Crude oil got absolutely crushed on Thursday and was last trading down nearly 5% at $45.48.

Gold was also down about 1.6% on the day losing at $1,228.80.

The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Thursday was Frontier Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: FTR) which traded down about 11.5% at $1.42. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.42 to $5.53. Volume was over 72 million versus the daily average of 46.7million shares.

The stock posting the largest daily percentage gain in the S&P 500 ahead of the close Thursday was Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) which jumped about 6.7% to $434.29. The stock’s 52-week range is $325.35 to $452.96. Volume was roughly 2.1 million which is above the daily average of just under 1.0 million shares.