Wall Street took a late session dive on Tuesday as investment sentiment towards a potential coronavirus vaccine from Russia had drove market participants away from tech stocks and towards more reopening trades. The S&P 500 Index had inched closer to its all-time record high it had reached back in February, only to be pulled down in afternoon trade by a major tech sell off. On top of a potential vaccine receiving regulatory approval in Russia, investors are also anticipating more federal economic stimulus from Washington to reach a conclusion this week, with the world's largest economy's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic hinging on the decision.
After market close, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party, announced that he has selected Senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate for the upcoming 2020 presidential election. While this news could eventually impact the stock market depending on if Biden or President Donald Trump secure the presidency come November, market participants are more concerned about that coronavirus and economic recovery at the moment when making trade decisions.
Here's how the market settled on Tuesday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -0.80% or -26.77 points to 3,333.70
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.38% or -104.53 points to 27,686.91
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -1.69% or -185.53 points to 10,782.82
For Major Stock News, tech trades slumped: Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX). Cruise shares gained with reopening stocks: Carnival (NYSE: CCL), Norwegian (NYSE: NCLH), Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL). Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) shares fell after the company delayed its mid-to-late stage clinical trial of its potential coronavirus vaccine from sometime this summer to September. Other potential coronavirus vaccine developers like BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) also declined after posting lackluster quarterly earnings, while Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) reported better-than-expected earnings, but fell due to lack of exclusive contracts for its vaccine candidate.
For Stock Sector Performance, most industries fell with the broader market during Tuesday's decline, with only Financials +1.30% and Industrials +0.53% gaining despite the trend. The negative performance is as follows Utilities -2.13%, Real Estate -1.87%, Information Technology -1.78%, Communication Services -1.30%, Consumer Staples -0.70%, Health Care -0.65%, Consumer Discretionary -0.64%, Energy -0.24%, and Materials -0.18%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) fell from a two-week high it reach during Tuesday's session as investors moved towards other currencies that are set to gain from an improving global outlook. The dollar index dropped 0.1%. Crude oil prices also dropped on Tuesday, with Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) slipping 0.82% to $44.64 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) sank 0.79% to $41.61 per barrel. Gold (NYSE: GLD) also gave back much of its recent gains, with spot gold falling 5.2% to $1,921.50 per ounce, while futures dipped 4.6% to $1,946.30 per ounce.
As the market heads towards the mid-week, investors will focus on economic data for inflation as well as fresh corporate earnings from companies like Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT).