The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly hit an intraday record high on Monday before diving into negative territory as investors grew increasingly concerned that tightening restrictions in New York City and elsewhere could weigh down the economy.
The Dow hit an intraday record high of 30,325 after the first hour of trading but slumped through the rest of the day as positive news on the vaccine rollout was offset by news that further restrictions will crimp business in the weeks before Christmas. New York City Mayor Bill di Blasio said that the city could need to go into ‘full shutdown’ to prevent the hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Dow stocks sold off steeply in the final hour bringing the blue-chip index down to 29,860.57, a 0.62 percent loss for the day. McDonald’s was the best performing stock in the index, rising 2.12 percent. Shares of Walt Disney were the worst-performing, falling 3.6 percent. Shares of energy giant Chevron were the second-worst, losing 3.21 percent.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.44 percent with nine of the index’s 11 sectors losing for the day. Energy was the worst sector, falling 3.53 percent. Consumer discretionary rose 0.55 percent and Information Technology gained 0.41 percent. Communications services, which include many of the digital media giants, fell 0.55 percent.
The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite rose for the day, gaining five-tenths of a percentage point. Tesla shares jumped 4.92 percent. AMD shares rose 3.57 percent. Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 1.22 percent.
So-called ‘reopening’ stocks did poorly—Marriott fell 1.47 percent and United Air dropped 3.39 percent—while lockdown shares did well. Peloton, for example, rose 4.11 percent.