US Stocks fall amid surging COVID-19 cases, anxiety over Georgia runoff elections

The US stocks eased from record levels on the first trading day of the year on Monday, 04 January 2021, with all three indexes the S&P 500 index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closing lower, as investors weighed another spike in virus cases and nerves over the outcome of runoff elections in Georgia this week countered optimism over a vaccine-driven recovery in the global economy.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 382.59 points, or 1.25%, to 30,223.89. The S&P 500 index was down 55.42 points, or 1.48%, to 3,700.65. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 189.84 points, or 1.47%, to 12,698.45.

 

The profit taking pullback triggered in the market amid uncertainty ahead of two key Senate runoffs in Georgia on Tuesday. The fate of President-elect Joe Biden's agenda including rewriting the tax code, boosting stimulus and infrastructure spending hinges firmly on Tuesday's twin Senate races in the battleground state that will determine control of the chamber.

Also, selloff on Wall Street was due to concerns about the recent spike in coronavirus cases in several parts of the world, with a new strain of the virus being detected in the U.S. for the first time.

ECONOMIC NEWS: US Construction Spending Increases 0.9% In November - US construction spending climbed by 0.9% to an annual rate of $1.459 trillion in November after surging up by 1.6% to a revised rate of $1.447 trillion in October, the Commerce Department reported on Monday. The continued increase in construction spending came as spending on private construction shot up by 1.2% to an annual rate of $1.112 trillion. Spending on residential construction spiked by 2.7% to a rate of $658.1 billion, more than offsetting a 0.8% drop in spending on non-residential construction to a rate of $453.8 billion.

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