NEW YORK (Reuters) Shares on Wall Street closed sharply lower on Monday, slipping from the highest trading day of the year as risk appetite increased amid the upcoming run-off elections in Georgia and the continuing rise in coronavirus cases.
The Dow, which hit a record high with the S&P 500 earlier in the session, was also dragged down by more than 4% in Boeing Co’s shares after Bernstein cut its rating to ‘underperformance’, citing concern about cash flow.
All three major indices reached two-week lows, with a record high in the Dow and S&P 500 expanding a 2020 rally fueled by monetary stimulus and the start of vaccine vaccination.
The fate of U.S. President Joe Biden’s agenda includes rewriting the tax code, stimulating spending and infrastructure spending depends on Tuesday’s twin Senate games in the battlefield of Georgia that will determine control of the chamber.
Wall Street’s fear-monger hit a two-week high on Monday.
“Stocks are pulling back after a glorious year of profits,” Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist, told Reynolds Strategy.
‘We’re starting with a virus that’s out of control. We will probably end 2021 with a virus that could be under control by that time. How we get from start to finish will be filled with frequent setbacks because people will look at short-term headlines, ”he added.
The total U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 reached more than 350,000.
Almost all S&P sectors have declined with real estate, utilities and industrial people. Consumer discretionary materials and materials reach an everyday peak in early trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 382.59 points, or 1.25%, to 30,223.89, the S&P 500 lost 55.42 points, or 1.48%, to 3,700.65, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 189.84 points, or 1.47%, to 12,698.45.
The S&P 500 and the Dow reached their biggest daily percentage since the end of October, while the Nasdaq had its biggest loss since December 9th.
“Investors are at a point where they want to take a breather while judging all the different things in the new year,” said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As for the data, U.S. manufacturing operations increased at its fastest pace in more than six years in December, a survey showed Monday. It comes to light earlier in the day on optimistic surveys of factory activities in Europe and Asia.
Some investors are wary of the pace of economic growth as U.S. demands for unemployment remain stubbornly high, while a new round of pandemic-related restrictions last month and a new variant of the coronavirus dropped the prospect.
The shares of Tesla Inc expanded a meteoric march to scale a record high after the electric car maker reported better-than-expected vehicle deliveries in 2020.
The shares of FLIR Systems Inc rose more than 19% after Teledyne Technologies Inc agreed to buy the thermal camera supplier for $ 8 billion in cash and stock. However, Teledyne’s shares fell 7.5%.
Declining issues exceeded the number on the NYSE by a 2.14-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.43-to-1 ratio was the case of declines.
The S&P 500 reached 54 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 151 new highs and 19 new lows.
The US stock market traded 14.15 billion shares, compared to the average of 10.94 billion for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Edited by Marguerita Choy