US market close: Wall Street cools off amid surging pandemic
By Joseph Toppe
20:55, 30 December 2021
American benchmark indices slipped late on Thursday as a new high in daily US Covid-19 cases made investors cautious.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 90 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 sank 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2%.
Halfway through the session, the Dow was around 0.12% higher, the S&P was up near 0.18%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose approximately 0.49% after finishing in the red yesterday.
Covid-19: Daily US cases skyrocket
Cases of Covid-19 in the US have reached an all-time daily high. The latest data from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine shows more than 265,000 new cases each day, with the highly contagious Omicron variant the likely culprit for the uptick in patients.
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Winners and losers: Cruise line stock sink
As cases continue to spike around the world, shares of Carnival are down 1.27%, while Norwegian Cruise Line sank 2.59%.
Shares of Royal Caribbean plunged 1.11% after the company issued a press release on Thursday detailing the pandemic’s impact on the cruise line and subsequent influence throughout the industry.
In other travel stock, shares of American Airlines are up 0.11% higher, Delta Airlines dropped 0.31%, while Southwest Airlines rose 1.30% and United Airlines fell 0.68% in negative territory.
With rising Omicron cases around the globe, vaccine makers Pfizer are 1.42% better, Moderna is up 1.50% after falling to 0.77% in earlier trading and Johnson & Johnson is higher by 0.44%.
In the tech industry, shares of Apple are 0.66% lower, Meta Platforms is 0.41% higher as Microsoft went 0.77% lower and Amazon went down 0.33%.
Meanwhile, shares for Tesla dropped 1.46% after financial filings published Tuesday revealed CEO Elon Musk sold another 934,090 shares, representing approximately $1.02bn of the Tesla chief’s stake in the electric car builder.
Oil: Crude spikes as travel stock plummets
Oil futures closed higher on Thursday as West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery traded 43 cents, or 0.6%, higher to settle at $76.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while February Brent crude tacked on nine cents, or 0.1%, to finish at $79.32 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
In energy stock, shares of Hess are 0.95% in the red, as Chevron dipped 0.44% lower.
Gold: Yellow metal back above $1,800
Gold futures closed higher with February gold jumping $8.30, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,814.10 an ounce, after declining 0.3% on Wednesday, while March silver improved 20.2 cents, or 0.9%, to end at $23.06 an ounce, following a 1.1% drop yesterday.
Forex: Yield hits weekly low
On Thursday, one US dollar equals $1.28 of the Canadian dollar, $0.88 of the euro, $0.91 of the Swiss Franc, and $0.74 of the Pound sterling.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.514%, the largest one-day decline in a week.
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