NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st December, 2021) US stocks fell hard on Monday, for a fifth time in six days, on fears of a heightened Omicron wave of the coronavirus that led to a spike in infections and hospitalizations in Europe and the United States.
The White House said President Joe Biden had no intentions of shutting down the US economy although he will warn of a "harsh winter for the unvaccinated" as cases rise ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays. That helped US equity benchmarks to rebound from their lows, though they still finished as much as 11% lower than the December 10 close, before the latest selling stretch in stocks began.
Wall Street also took a hit from news that President Joe Biden's signature $1.75-trillion "Build Back Better" infrastructure agenda was likely doomed by fellow Democrat Senator Joe Manchin's last-minute refusal to vote for the plan. Manchin is one of the 50 Democrat senators in a divided Senate that has 50 Republicans as well. Goldman Sachs lowered its US growth forecast on the news, because of a likely drop in government spending.
"It does not feel like the most wonderful time of the year for Wall Street," Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said. "US stocks are not seeing a Santa Claus rally and in fact remain stuck in the COVID-19 house of pain."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of Wall Street's three key benchmarks that had taken the worst beating in the past six sessions, showed a 1.2% drop on the day and a total decline of 11% since the December 10 close.
The Nasdaq Composite, an index of Big Tech stocks which groups Names such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, fell 1.24% on Monday. For the past six sessions, Nasdaq showed a net drop of 4%.
The S&P 500, which lists the top 500 US stocks, finished down 1% on Monday and 3% lower since December 10.
