Dow closes down 382 points on first trading day of New Year

The major United States stock indexes finished in the red on Monday, as concerns over surging COVID-19 infections and the outcome of Georgia’s runoff elections dominated investor sentiment on the first trading day of the New Year.

Having jumped at the opening bell on Wall Street to a new record high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average quickly drifted into negative territory and kept on falling. At its lowest point in the session, the 30-share index was down more than 700 points. But it managed to pair those losses by the session’s end to close down more than 382 points at 30,223.89.

The S&P 500 also rose at the open only to fall into the red.  The index – a gauge for the health of US retirement and college savings plans – finished down 1.48 percent.

The same pattern marked the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, which finished down 1.47 percent.

Monday’s positive opens and rapid descent into negative territory happened against a backdrop of rising COVID-19 infections in the US and other parts of the globe. Countries are bracing for a punishing few months as government officials order business-sapping restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

During the session, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered England into its third lockdown of the pandemic.

A disappointing vaccine launch in the US – as well as a new, more highly contagious variant of COVID-19 – also added to investor concerns, eclipsing Wall Street’s hopes that better times could lie ahead as vaccine rollouts bolster the US and global economic recovery.

Investors in US stock markets are also awaiting the outcome of Tuesday’s Senate runoff elections in Georgia. If the Democratic challengers can manage to unseat the two Republican incumbents, it would set the stage for President-elect Joe Biden to more easily push through his economic agenda – including higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy as well as more robust financial lifelines for struggling US households and businesses.

Bucking the downward trend on Monday was Tesla. Shares of the electric vehicle maker continued their relentless rise in the new year to finish the session up 3.41 percent.

On Saturday, Tesla reported 2020 sales that fell short of founder and CEO Elon Musk’s half-a-million-unit target, but still managed to beat Wall Street’s estimates.