Stocks drop broadly on Wall Street, led by Big Tech

The Associated Press Published 10:33 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2021

Job loss numbers skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but not everyone was counted as unemployed. Here’s how the unemployment rate is measured. USA TODAY

Stocks are pulling back broadly in the early going on Wall Street, taking the S&P 500 further below the record high it reached just two days ago.

The benchmark index was off 1.4% in the first few minutes of trading Wednesday. Big Tech stocks posted some of the biggest declines, with the exception of Microsoft, which reported impressive quarterly results late Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 300 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.9%.

European markets were down even more, and Asian markets finished mixed overnight. Treasury yields were little changed. Traders will be looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, which wraps up later Wednesday.

Worried about your financial security?: Here’s how to cope with a job loss spurred by COVID-19

Markets have meandered since last week as investors weighed solid corporate earnings results against renewed worries that troubles with COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the spread of new variants of coronavirus might delay a recovery from the pandemic.

With the virus spreading like “wildfire” in parts of the world, the first half of the year might be “lost,” Stephen Innes of Axi said in a commentary. “ Some are even concerned that vaccines may not prove useful enough to eradicate the virus. And these concerns will continue to linger over markets like a dark cloud until vaccine distributions get ironed out, and a definitive drop in contagion levels can thoroughly support the vaccine efficacy results.”

The reality that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 billion stimulus package won’t be “rubber stamped” by the U.S. Senate is also weighing on sentiment, Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a report.

Wall Street on Jan. 12, 2021, in New York City.

 (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

This is the busiest week so far of quarterly earnings reporting season for U.S. companies.

More than 100 companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to tell investors this week how they fared during the last three months of 2020. As a whole, analysts expect S&P 500 companies to say their fourth-quarter profit fell 5% from a year earlier. That’s a milder drop than the 9.4% they were forecasting earlier this month, according to FactSet.

The fate of Biden’s plan to send $1,400 to most Americans and deliver other support for the economy remains uncertain given the slim majority of the Democrats in the Senate. But on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are prepared to push ahead with the relief package, even if it means using procedural tools to pass the legislation without Republicans.

In other trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil dropped 1 cent to $52.60 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gave up 16 cents on Tuesday. Brent crude, the international standard, added 9 cents to $55.73 per barrel.

The dollar was trading at 103.83 Japanese yen, up from 103.62 yen late Tuesday. The euro slipped to $1.2115 from $1.2163.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX fell 1.7% to 13,635, France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.3% to 5,454. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.9% to 6,594.

Elsewhere, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index added 0.3% to 28,635.21, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.3% to 29,297.53. The Kospi in South Korea sank 0.6% to 3,122.56, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher to 3,573.34. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.7% to 6,780.60.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2021/01/27/stocks-drop-broadly-wall-street-led-big-tech/4275765001/