Stocks pay price while infections rise

Stocks ended lower on Wall Street, pulling major indexes further below the record highs they flirted with a day earlier, as coronavirus infections continue to mount.

The S&P 500 lost 1% Thursday, a rare stumble in what’s been a banner month for the benchmark index. Many analysts along Wall Street are still optimistic the market can climb higher and set more records amid hope a vaccine may be coming for COVID19. But several risks remain that could trip up markets in the near term. Rising above them all is the continuing pandemic, with daily counts climbing in nearly every state across the country.

The trends are worsening enough in New York, for example, that the state is ordering restaurants, bars and gyms to close at 10 p.m. each night, beginning today. In Europe, several governments have brought back even tougher restrictions that will likely restrain the economy.

“From a health standpoint and economic standpoint, the very near term looks relatively bleak,” said Mike Dowdall, investment strategist with BMO Global Asset Management.

But while he says more volatility may hit the market in the near term as governments bring back restrictions, he’s still optimistic about its prospects into next year.

“If you think back to the dark days of March, you didn’t know how far we were from normalization,” he said. “People were saying it may be years. But the backdrop from a markets standpoint is just a lot different than it was in March.”