Nasdaq Pulls Back From Record As US Stocks Retreat

Wall Street stocks tumbled on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq pulling back from a record as the equity rally paused amid surging US coronavirus cases.

All three major indices finished solidly lower, with the Nasdaq shedding 0.9 percent to end a streak of three straight records at 10,343.

The Dow Jones slipped 1.5 percent to 25,890, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.1 percent to 3,145.

Major US indices had gained more than 1.5 percent on Monday, with the Nasdaq finishing at a fresh record, betting that continued stimulus from Washington and moves to restart business activity would more than offset rising Covid-19 counts in Texas, Florida and other US states.

But in media interviews, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic and Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester both expressed concerns that rising Covid-19 infections were slowing the economic recovery.

"It makes people much more cautious," Mester told CNBC of conditions in her bank's region.

Sectors with big losses included large banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, both down around three percent, and industrial companies such as Boeing and Caterpillar, which fell 4.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

But Walmart had a good day, rising 6.8 percent following a report that the retail giant will soon launch a subscription service to compete with Amazon Prime.

Novavax jumped 31.6 percent after the US announced it was providing US$1.6 billion in funding for the development and manufacture of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate produced by the biotech company. (AFP)