Stocks Slump on Virus Spike Before Georgia Runoff: Markets Wrap
- The S&P 500 suffers worst decline to start a year since 2016
- Easier-to-spread Covid variant in U.S. amps up vaccine urgency
Volatility gripped financial markets, spurring a stock selloff amid concern that a surge in global coronavirus cases could crimp the nascent economic recovery. Traders were also jittery ahead of Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia, which will determine whether Democrats have control of Congress to push President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda.
While equities pared a slide that drove major U.S. benchmarks down more than 2% earlier Monday, the S&P 500 suffered its worst decline to start a year since 2016. It was also the biggest drop for the benchmark gauge in almost 10 weeks. Giants Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. sank at least 2.1%, Boeing Co. weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average following an analyst downgrade, and Tesla Inc. climbed after coming close to meeting its vehicle-deliveries goal. The Cboe Volatility Index -- a gauge of expected price swings for the S&P 500 known as the VIX -- surged the most since October.