US: Stocks fall as market awaits key Federal Reserve decision

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks fell on Monday ahead of key decisions by the Federal Reserve and other central banks and as markets weighed lingering worries over the latest Covid-19 variant.

After last week's strong performance, stocks spent most of the session in the red as Britain becames the latest to boost its response to the Omicron strain, after becoming the first country to officially announce a fatality from the latest virus mutation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday is widely expected to lay out an accelerated timetable for scaling back stimulus in the face of the highest consumer price inflation in decades. That would open the door to an interest rate increase by mid-2022 or earlier.

Angelo Kourkafas, investment strategist at Edward Jones, pointed to a "little bit of uneasiness, nervousness" about the Fed, as well as reports of more Omicron cases in China and elsewhere.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.9 per cent at 35,650.95.

The broad-based S&P 500 also dropped 0.9 per cent to 4,668.97, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 1.4 per cent to end at 15,413.28.

Losses were fairly broad-based with most of the Dow in the red. Apple, Boeing, Home Depot and Chevron were among the companies that shed more than two percent.

Among individual companies Arena Pharmaceuticals surged 80.4 per cent after reaching an agreement to be acquired by Pfizer for US$6.7 billion in cash. Pfizer said the transaction would bolster its capacities in inflammation and immunology.

Harley-Davidson gained 4.7 per cent as it announced it will take its electric motorcycle division LiveWire public through a merger with a special purpose company, in another of the increasingly-popular SPAC transactions.

Peloton Interactive jumped 7.4 per cent after unveiling a new advertising spot that spoofed a scene in the popular Sex and the City franchise that weighed on shares last week after a character died following a workout on the interactive exercise bike.

AFP