Stocks slid to start the week on Monday as investors sold equities in the face of concerning news about the fast-spreading omicron Covid variant.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 430 points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1% and 1.2%, respectively. Blue-chip names like Boeing and Caterpillar, as well as reopening plays like Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts notched losses.
The omicron variant is raging across the world as the winter holiday season approaches. The strain has been found through testing in 43 out of 50 U.S. states and around 90 countries, and the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission, according to the World Health Organization.
"Today was the perfect storm. Huge spikes in Omicron, [Build Back Better] falls apart, the Fed is now hawkish, Davos was postponed, and overall worries that Santa could give investors coal this December are giving the bears a lot of confidence today,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.
The S&P 500 dropped 3.01% over the past three days, marking the worst decline over a three-day span since September.
