U.S. Stocks Plunge amid Rising Covid-19 Cases, while Oil Prices Fall over 6%

U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday morning as worries over a rebound in COVID-19 cases triggered a broad market sell-off.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 801.58 points, or 2.31 percent, to 33,886.27. The S&P 500 fell 80.87 points, or 1.87 percent, to 4,246.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 218.90 points, or 1.52 percent, to 14,208.34.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors pulled back in morning trading, with energy down more than 4 percent, leading the losses.

The sell-off came as a rise in new cases of COVID-19 unnerved investors. Key indicators of COVID-19 transmission in the United States continue to surge amid a slowdown of vaccination rates and rapid spread of variants.
The average number of new daily cases was nearly 30,000 in the 7-day ending Friday, compared with the previous 7-day average of 18,642, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the week ending July 16, the Dow lost 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, pressured by a continued rise in U.S. inflation readings.

 

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped 6.68% to $66.78/bbl and Brent Crude fell 6.06% to $69.13/bbl.

The plummet in oil prices came after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, agreed in an online meeting to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels a day from August to December 2021 amid rising demand.

Moreover, the group decided to stop the production cut of 5.8 million barrels per day by September 2022, but is still subject to market conditions.

 

Source: Xinhua