NEW YORK (Reuters) – US stock indices fell, closing Friday session with the biggest weekly drop since October, as investors rated the effects of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine test results, while a deviation between Wall Street hedge funds and small, retail investors contributed to the volatility.
Johnson & Johnson dropped 3.56% as one of the biggest weights on both the Dow and S & P500 after the drugmaker said the single-dose vaccine was 72% effective in preventing COVID-19 in the United States, with a lower percentage of 66% observed worldwide. .
The results compare to the high standard set by two authorized vaccines from Pfizer Inc / BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc, which were approximately 95% effective in preventing symptomatic diseases in key trials when given in two doses. Modern shares rose 8.53%, while Pfizer shares rose 0.11%.
Concerns of a brief push that began earlier in the week resurfaced after an army of retail investors returned to shares in GameStop Corp and Koss Corp, which shot higher after brokers, including Robinhood, imposed restrictions on the dissertation, relieved.
‘The whole picture is that if there is bad news that indicates or indicates that there may be a longer hibernation period for us to be indoors and not consume or spend, that puts the market back and that many people along the sideline, especially with the news, ”said Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer of Defiance ETFs in New York.
“And what’s going on with (Gamestop) and all that stuff, people are a little scared to trade.”
The increase in volatility led to a large increase in volume, with more than 20 billion shares in each of the past two sessions in the U.S. stock market for the most active trading days recorded up to 2014, according to Refinitiv data.
The volume in the US stock market was 17.13 billion shares on Friday, compared to the average of 15.26 billion for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was closely monitoring the possible violations of brokers as well as dealers on social media.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 620.74 points, or 2.03%, to 29,982.62, the S&P 500 lost 73.14 points, or 1.93%, to 3,714.24 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 266.46 points, or 2%, to 13,070.70.
All three major indices have had their biggest weekly decline since the end of October, as the Dow lost 3.28%, the S&P fell 3.31% and the Nasdaq fell 3.49%. For the month, the Dow fell 2.04%, the S&P 1.12% and the Nasdaq rose 1.42%.
Both S&P and Dow closed below their 50-day moving average, seen as a technical support level.
Market participants have speculated that volatility caused by the short pressures has led to investor favorites, including Apple Inc., coming under pressure as hedge funds sell to cover billions of dollars in losses.
Apple shares fell 3.74% while Microsoft fell 2.92%.
Although concerns about the rising COVID-19 cases and bumpy vaccination of vaccine investors over a downturn and an increase in short-term volatility hold, the beginning of quarterly earnings has eased concerns about extended stock valuations.
Of the 184 companies in the S&P 500 that reported earnings up to Friday morning, 84.2%, according to Refinitiv data, rose above analysts’ expectations, well above the 75.5% beat rate for the past four quarters.
Honeywell International lost 3.68% after falling 13% in quarterly earnings.
The first known U.S. cases of the South African COVID-19 variant, which is partially resistant to current vaccines and antibody treatments, were detected in South Carolina on Thursday.
Data showed that US labor costs rose more than expected in the fourth quarter, amid a rise in wages, which supports the view that inflation could accelerate this year, while another report shows that US consumer spending for ‘ dropped a second month in December.
Declining issues surpassed the number on the NYSE with a 2.88-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.38-to-1 ratio was the case of declines.
The S&P 500 reached 7 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 16 new lows.
Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; edited by Diane Craft