Wall Street retreated from last week's rebound ahead of the Fed meeting later this week as investors stay cautious about tightening monetary policy, along with concerns of the economic impact from the omicron variant.
The UK reported the first death from the Omicron variant, and now the new variant accounts for 40% of infection cases in London. According to Oxford's study, the effectiveness of fully vaccinated (two doses) can be reduced substantially against the omicron variant for both AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.89%, the S&P 500 slid 0.91% after the index hit a fresh new-high last Friday, and the tech heavily weighted index, Nasdaq declined 1.39%. The defensive sectors, such as Healthcare, Consumer Staples, Real Estate, and Utilities outperformed amid the risk-off sentiment, all up more than 1%. By contrast, travel-related stocks are the biggest losers. United Airlines fell 5.03%, Delta Airline fell 3.3%, and Norwegian Cruise Line slumped 4.7%. The tech sector was also hit by the risk-off trades, Apple shares fell 1%, to $175. 70 after it hit a new-hight at $182. 09 per share. Alphabet and Amazon were both down more than 1%, Microsoft was edged lower, and Meta Platform gained 2.07%. Chipmakers continue to retreat from the November highs. Nvidia slumped 6.35%, AMD was down 3.34%. Tesla Motor lost the $1000 ground, the EV maker's stocks fell 5%, to $965.
The 10-year US Treasury yield fell to 1. 422%.
The US bond yields curve has flattened further. The WTI futures price was down 0.52%, to $71.31.
Gold futures held steady at $1,787.4, up $2.6 per ounce.
The VIX, which gauges investment anxiety, rose 10%, to 20.56.
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