Shares ended lower on Monday as Wall Street’s optimism about the introduction of coronavirus vaccines was suppressed by an increase in infections and fears of tighter restrictions and closures.
Wall Street’s attention was also drawn to Tuesday’s by-elections in Georgia, which will determine the balance between the Senate and the legislative agenda of President-elect Joe Biden.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 382 points, or 1.25%, to 30,223, the S&P 500 fell 1.48% and the Nasdaq fell 1.47%. The Dow and S&P 500 set intraday records shortly after the markets opened on Monday.
At one point in Monday’s trading, the Dow dropped 30 to 2.4%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped to 2.7%.
The decline of the Dow Monday was led by Boeing (BA) – Get report, which fell 5.25% after an analyst downgraded.
Stocks closed higher on Thursday, the last trading session of 2020, with the Dow and S&P 500 setting records as a volatile year, brutally disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Blue-chip Dow rose by 7.3% in 2020, the S&P 500 rose by 16.3% – against its lowest pandemic in March, the index fell by more than 30% – and the technological Nasdaq fell by 43, Jumped 6%, his best annual performance since 2009.
Traders are ‘perhaps a little too eager’, but say vaccines ‘will provide the ultimate economic start-up, which will provide a huge increase in corporate profits,’ says Stephen Innes of Axi.
U.S. coronavirus deaths reached 352,645, and infections in the country rose to about 20.74 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, more than 85.5 million people have contracted the virus.
At the end of 2020, from a spending bill of $ 2.3 trillion, which included nearly $ 1 trillion for coronavirus relief, domestic equities were supported ahead of the two major elections in Georgia.
The importance of the vote, which attracted nearly $ 500 million in advertising spending and a record 3 million ballots, was underlined on Sunday by the announcement of a phone call. In the call, outgoing President Donald Trump tried to put Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger under pressure to find the necessary votes to overturn the outcome of the November presidential election.
Tesla (TSLA) – Get report rose 3.4% on Monday after the electric vehicle company said over the weekend that it had reached its 2020 target of producing at least half a million cars, but missed its aggressive delivery target after a record year fueled by the Chinese demand for its Model 3 sedan.
Magellan Health (MGLN) – Get report rose 13% after agreeing to be acquired by Centene (CNC) – Get report for $ 95 per share cash. The operating value of the transaction is $ 2.2 billion.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest crypto-currency, fell as much as 20% on Monday after reaching $ 34,000 on Sunday. Bitcoin reached $ 30,000 the previous day for the first time in history.