Stocks ended lower on Monday as Wall Street optimism about the deployment of coronavirus vaccines was eroded by rising infections and fears of tougher restrictions and blockades.
Wall Street’s attention was also focused on Tuesday’s election in Georgia, which will set the balance of 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 had set intraday records shortly after opening markets on Monday.
At one point in trading on Monday, the Dow 30 fell to 2.4%. The Nasdaq Composite fell to 2.7%.
The decline of the Dow on Monday was led by Boeing (BA) – Get the report, which fell 5.25% after the degradation of analysts.
Shares closed higher Thursday, the last trading session of 2020, with Dow and S&P 500 records as a volatile year, brutally disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dow chip rose 7.3% in 2020, the S&P 500 gained 16.3% (at its pandemic low in March, the index had fallen more than 30%) and the Nasdaq, with much technology, jumped 43.6%, its best annual performance since 2009..
Traders are “perhaps a little exaggerated,” but say the vaccines “will provide the maximum economic boost, providing a big boost to corporate profits,” said Stephen Innes of Axi.
Coronavirus deaths in the United States reached 352,645 and infections in the country rose to about 20.74 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, more than 85.5 million people have contracted the virus.
The approval in late 2020 of a $ 2.3 trillion spending bill, which included nearly $ 1 trillion to relieve the coronavirus, has underpinned national actions ahead of Georgia’s two main elections.
The importance of that vote, which has attracted nearly $ 500 million in advertising spending and a record 3 million email votes, was highlighted Sunday by the release of a phone call. In that call, outgoing President Donald Trump tried to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find the votes needed to nullify the results of the November presidential election.
Tesla (TSLA) – Get the report rose 3.4% on Monday after the electric vehicle company said over the weekend that it had met its 2020 target of producing at least half a million cars, but that it narrowly lost its aggressive delivery target after of a record year driven by Chinese demand for its Model 3 sedan.
Health of Magellan (MGLN) – Get the report finished 13% after agreeing to be acquired by Centene (CNC) – Get the report for $ 95 per share in cash. The business value of the deal is $ 2.2 billion.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, fell as much as 20% on Monday after topping $ 34,000 on Sunday. Bitcoin had reached $ 30,000 for the first time in its history the day before.