The , which touched a record high earlier in the session along with the , was dragged down by a more than 4% fall in Boeing (NYSE:) shares after Bernstein cut its rating to “underperform,” citing concerns about cash flow.
All three main indexes hit two-week lows, with record highs in the Dow and S&P 500 extending a 2020 rally fueled by monetary stimulus and the start of vaccine rollouts.
The fate of US President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda, meanwhile, including rewriting the tax code, boosting stimulus and infrastructure spending hinges firmly on Tuesday’s twin Senate races in the battleground state of Georgia that will determine control of the chamber.
Wall Street’s fear gauge touched a two-week high on Monday. “Stocks are pulling back from a stunning year of gains,” said Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist, at Reynolds Strategy. “We’re starting off with a virus out of control. We’ll probably going to 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 pullbacks because people will be looking at short-term headlines,” he added. Total US deaths from COVID-19 have reached more than 350,000.
Almost all S&P sectors dropped with real estate, utilities and industrials posting the sharpest percentage declines. Consumer discretionary and materials hit all-time highs 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 dropped 189.84 points, or 1.47%, to 12,698.45.
The S&P 500 and the Dow posted their largest daily percentage falls since late October, while the NASDAQ had its biggest loss since Dec. 9. “Investors are at a point where they want to take a breather while they assess all the different things coming in the new year,” said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
