Dec. 29 (UPI) — The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite snapped three-day winning streaks on Tuesday after all three major U.S. markets hit new records to start the week.
Despite all three major indexes rising to start the day, the S&P 500 dropped 0.22% at the end of the day and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.38%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also fell 68.30 points, or 0.22%.
While markets started the week strong after President Donald Trump signed the long-awaited $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill on Monday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked efforts to raise direct payments to individuals included in the bill to $2,000.
Trump on Tuesday tweeted that Republicans should approve the increased payments unless they “have a death wish,” but also called for the Senate to approve a repeal of Section 230, which provides federal protections for technology companies like Facebook and Twitter, and to take action on his repeated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Apple dropped 1.33% and Home Depot fell 1.14% to drag the Dow lower Tuesday, however, Intel helped to avoid a major dip in the index, rising 4.93%.
While markets fell Tuesday, all three major indexes remain up for the year as tech stocks have propelled the Nasdaq up 42.7% amid the pandemic, while the S&P has gained 15% and the Dow has climbed 5.9%.
“After a tumultuous year, stocks look almost certain to end 2020 on a high as there is no sign that the global flood of fiscal and monetary stimulus is about to be scaled back,” Raffi Boyadjian, senior investment analyst at XM, said according to MarketWatch.
“And with vaccine rollouts gathering pace, it is easy for investors to look past the daily grim headlines of record COVID infections and deaths.”
