Nasdaq at new high on mixed day

A listless day on Wall Street left stocks mostly lower Tuesday even as more gains by technology companies pushed the Nasdaq to an all- time high.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index spent much of the day wavering between small gains and losses before f inishing with a 0.2% loss, its third straight decline. About 65% of the companies in the index fell. Losses in communication services, f inancial and other companies accounted for much of the selling.

Those losses were kept in check by solid gains in smallcompany stocks, which did better than the rest of the market. Tech companies also rose, adding to the sector’s blockbuster 41% gain this year.

The mixed showing for stocks came as Congress f inally approved a $ 900- billion rescue to carry the economy through what was likely expected to be a bleak winter. A couple of discouraging reports on the economy also may have weighed on the market. Trading was relatively thin ahead of the Christmas holiday later in the week.

The S& P 500 fell 7.66 points to 3,687.26. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 200.94 points, or 0.7%, to 30,015.51. The Nasdaq composite rose 65.40 points, or 0.5%, to 12,807.92, a record high. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies also set a record high, gaining 19.55 points, or 1%, to 1,989.88.

After months of bickering, Congress approved a deal Monday night to send $ 600 cash payments to most Americans, give $ 300 per week to laid- off workers and deliver other aid to businesses struggling from the pandemic. The bill is going to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

The hope for investors is that such support can prop up the economy for the next several months until a more widespread rollout of COVID- 19 vaccines can allow it to stand on its own. That expectation has been driving markets, but a new worry is casting some doubt.

A new strain of the coronavirus has emerged, one that has caught hold in at least London and southern England. There’s no evidence that it’s more deadly, but it seems to spread more easily. Worries about it are serious enough that some countries have restricted f lights from London, raising concerns that more economy- punishing lockdowns may be on the way.

Helping to keep the worries in check was the chief executive of BioNTech, the German company that developed a COVID- 19 vaccine with Pfizer. Ugur Sahin said it was “highly likely” that his company’s vaccine could protect against the new variant, though further studies are needed. His f irm’s vaccine is one of two approved for U. S. use.

Even without the new coronavirus strain, the resurgent pandemic has been dragging on the U. S. economy, which had roared to a record annualized pace of 33.4% growth during the summer. Two weaker reports on important areas of the economy added to the growing pile of discouraging data Tuesday.

One showed that confidence among U. S. consumers dropped this month, and the reading was well below what economists had forecast. Another showed that even the red- hot housing market was slowing slightly. The reading on sales of previously occupied homes roughly matched economists’ expectations.

Such worries have caused momentum to slow for the stock market, which set record highs last week after earlier surging on hopes that COVID- 19 vaccines will trigger a return to normality for the economy next year, and that Washington would approve a big stimulus to tide the economy over until then.

Healthy gains for some of the S& P 500’ s most inf luential stocks helped limit the index’s losses Tuesday. Apple rose 2.8%. Because it’s the biggest firm in the index by market value, its movements carry more sway.

Travel- related companies were targets of some of the heaviest selling, again, amid worries about more restrictions on travel. Norwegian Cruise Line lost 6.9% and American Airlines Group slid 3.9%.

European indexes recovered from some of their sharp drops from the day before, and stocks retreated in Asia.

The yield on the 10- year Treasury slipped to 0.92% from 0.93% late Monday.