NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 lost ground on Tuesday as concerns over a new variant of the coronavirus and disappointing economic data stole the storm from Washington’s passage of a highly anticipated pandemic bill.
The Dow also closed lower as Apple Inc helped push the tech-heavy Nasdaqs to record highs.
Small caps advanced, and the Russell 2000 also closed on a record high.
“Today the market is catching its breath,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It handles the two big news stories we’ve gotten in the last 24 hours, the incentive and the new COVID strain.”
Apple was an outlier amid a wide sell-off, gaining 2.8% and driving the largest gains in the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq on news of the company’s plans to roll out an electric passenger vehicle by 2024.
Overnight, Congress approved a $ 892 billion pandemic relief package after months of partisan tug-of-war aimed at supporting an economic recovery that faltered under the weight of constraints aimed at reviving the coronavirus.
That resurgence continues to accelerate, infecting 214,000 Americans every day, leading to mandatory closures and increasing the capacity of hospitals.
A rapidly spreading new variant of the virus discovered in Britain has halted movement in and out of the UK and prompted vaccine manufacturers Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc to ensure their drugs were effective against it .
Coronavirus fears and optimism about an eventual economic recovery fueled Wall Street’s extreme volatility in 2020, with the S&P 500 registering more or more daily gains or losses of 2% or more more than 40 times a year so far, the highest in more than a decade.
“This will be the first year in history where stocks fell 30% at one point and ended in green,” said Detrick. “It’s a really great tour and we’ve never seen anything like it.”
Economically, consumer confidence fell unexpectedly, while sales of second-hand American homes saw their first decline in six months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 200.94 points or 0.67% to 30,015.51, the S&P 500 lost 7.66 points or 0.21% to 3,687.26 and the Nasdaq Composite added 65.40 points or 0. 51% to 12,807.92.
Of the top 11 sectors in the S&P 500, only technology and real estate closed the session on positive ground.
Tesla Inc was down 1.5% and extended its second day decline as part of the S&P 500.
Peloton Interactive Inc was up 11.6% as brokers raised their target price on the stock following the company’s announcement that it would buy peer Precor in a $ 420 million deal.
Amgen Inc was down 2.8% after disappointing late-stage results of an asthma drug trial developed in collaboration with British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca Plc.
Diminishing problems outpaced the advance on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.31 to 1; on Nasdaq, a 1.21 to 1 ratio was in favor of progress.
The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and a new low; the Nasdaq Composite registered 323 new highs and 11 new lows.
The volume on the US stock exchanges was 11.02 billion shares, compared to the average of 11.62 billion over the past 20 trading days.
Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Cynthia Osterman