© Reuters.
By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The Dow fell Monday, led by Intel and broad-based weakness in value stocks as rising Covid-19 restrictions offset optimism over an imminent vaccine roll out and signs of progress on a stimulus deal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.69%, or 207 points. The S&P 500 was down 0.42%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.17%.
The path to a $908 billion stimulus bipartisan deal looks set to clear up in the coming days as lawmakers are expected to agree a stop-gap measure by the Friday deadline to keep the government funded, buying more time for lawmakers to iron out their differences on stimulus.
Business liability insurance from coronavirus-related lawsuits and in the Covid-19 and state local government support are thought to be holding up the progress of a deal.
The urgency for a deal has been exacerbated by the latest rise Covid-19 cases that have led several states across the country to impose new restrictions to curb the spread.
U.S. infections from Covid-19 surged above 14.7 million on Sunday with 1.3 million cases seen over the past week.
But there is light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel. Pfizer 's (NYSE:PFE) emergency use authorization application for its vaccine, developed in partnership with BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) could be approved by the Federal and Drug Administration in the coming days.
If approval is granted, the roll out of the vaccine is expected to begin the following day.
But sectors of the market likely to benefit from a speedy rollout the vaccine made a poor start the week, paced by a decline in energy.
In tech, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose more than 1% to keep a lid on Intel-led weakness in the broader market.
Chipmaker Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) fell 4% on fears of rising competition on a report from Bloomberg suggesting Apple is planning to launch a new series of Mac processors next year to outperform Intel’s fastest chips.
In other news, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped 6% en route to fresh all-time highs as traders appeared to pile into the company's shares ahead of its inclusion in the S&P 500 on Dec. 21.
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