Please try another search
By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow slipped Monday as a close race in the Georgia Senate runoff elections raised concerns over the prospect of a Democrat-controlled Congress that would likely usher in higher taxes at a time when the pandemic continues to worsen.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.6%, or 489 points, though was had fallen more 700 points intraday. The S&P 500 was down 1.80%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.73%.
"Investors are beginning to weigh the prospect of higher taxes and massive government spending against the notion of further fiscal relief aid as the pandemic – and subsequent policy measures – continues to wreak havoc on the economy," Stifel said in a note.
The political uncertainty comes as the new coronavirus variant continues to spread in the U.S., raising concerns that further lockdown measures will be needed to curb the contagion.
Patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in the U.S. hit a record high on Sunday, at 125,544, with experts warning the pandemic is likely to get worse.
“It could and likely will get worse in the next couple of weeks, or at least maintain this very terribly high level of infections and deaths that we’re seeing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told ABC on Sunday.
Further progress on vaccine rollouts kept hopes alive the economy could reopen sooner rather than later, as AstraZeneca's (NASDAQ:AZN) Covid-19 vaccine was distributed across the UK.
Real estate and industrials sectors were among the biggest decliners, with the latter paced by declines in airline stocks on worries further coronavirus restrictions will hurt travel demand.
United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL), Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) (DAL) and American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) fell more than 4%.
Energy stocks were outperforming the overall market malaise, shrugging off falling oil prices even as reports suggested key oil-producing countries remain dividend on production caps.
OPEC+ is meeting on Monday to decide whether to lift output by 500,000 barrels per day, but Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Algeria are reportedly pushing to leave production unchanged.
Technology was not far behind, down more than 2% as investors eased bets on the high-flying Fab 5 stocks.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) were in the red.
In other news, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) gained more than 3% after delivering a record 499,550 vehicles in 2020, though that fell just short of chief executive Elon Musk's 500,000 estimate. The company also deliveries of its Model Y vehicle from its Shanghai gigafactory would begin shortly.
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.