US: Wall Street retreats from records amid political turmoil

[NEW YORK] US stocks on Monday retreated from records set last week as political uncertainty, including efforts to remove President Donald Trump from power, has finally shaken investors.

While they were unmoved by the violent invasion of the US Capitol by Trump supporters last week, the three major indices all closed lower in the first session of the week.

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 0.3 per cent to end at 31,008.69.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.7 per cent to 3,799.61, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.2 per cent to finish at 13,036.43.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, said investors can only ignore bad news for so long.

The bad news included data showing spiking Covid-19 cases led to the first job losses since April.

The market "was able to look through the insurrection, the attack on the Capitol (and) lousy job numbers last week," he told AFP.

"But you get to a point where you have to stop pricing in the future and look at the here and now."

Amid concerns about rising coronavirus infections and reports about stumbles in the vaccine rollout, traders are monitoring the intensifying debate among Democrats over how to hold Mr Trump to account for inciting a mob to attack the US Capitol last week.

But a lengthy impeachment process could distract from President-elect Joe Biden's economic aid plans, which he is due to unveil later this week.

Meanwhile, tech companies that have banned Mr Trump's account and Parler, the platform favoured by many on the extreme right, were hit in the session: Twitter lost 6.4 per cent and Facebook fell 4.0 per cent, while Apple and Amazon each dropped more than 2 per cent.

AFP