Early rally fades for U. S. stocks

Stocks closed mostly lower Monday on Wall Street after an early rally faded, extending the market’s recent pullback from record highs.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.4% after having been up 0.9% in the early going. The reversal handed the benchmark index its fourth straight decline, something that hasn’t happened since September. Losses in the f inancial, industrial and healthcare sectors accounted for much of the decline, outweighing gains by technology stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending. Treasury yields were mostly higher, a sign of optimism in the economy.

Stocks initially headed higher as Americans began receiving the country’s f irst vaccinations against COVID- 19, a process that’s expected to take months.

Meanwhile, investors are still waiting to see whether Congress can break a log jam on delivering more aid to people, businesses and local governments affected by the COVID- 19 pandemic. They’re also monitoring talks on reaching a trade deal between Britain and the European Union.

The S& P 500 fell 15.97 points to 3,647.49. The index declined 1% last week, its worst weekly performance since Halloween.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 184.82 points, or 0.6%, to 29,861.55. The Nasdaq rose 62.17 points, or 0.5%, to 12,440.04. Smaller companies held up better than their larger rivals, an indication that investors are feeling more conf ident about the economy’s prospects. The Russell 2000 index gained 2.16 points, or 0.1%, to 1,913.86.

Hospital workers are unloading the first batches of a COVID- 19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, after its authorization for emergency use by U. S. regulators. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be f irst in line for vaccinations, and the hope in markets is that a wider rollout next year will help pull the economy back toward normal after its devastation this year.

Such optimism has helped Wall Street’s rally broaden beyond Big Tech stocks, which were pulling the market higher almost single- handedly earlier in the pandemic, though Monday’s pullback dragged down many of the companies that desperately need the economy to get healthier and reopen. American Airlines dropped 2.1%, while Carnival slid 1.8%. Marriott International gave up 1.5%.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals soared 29.2% for the biggest gain in the S& P 500. It’s the f irst trading day for the stock since AstraZeneca said Saturday that it would buy the company for $ 39 billion in cash and stock.

Of course, the hopes for the economy in the future are tempered by the worsening pandemic in the present. Surging coronavirus caseloads have forced a downshift to the economy’s momentum, including last week’s worse- than- expected report on joblessness. The increasing death toll is pushing governments around the world to bring back varying degrees of restrictions on companies, and it’s also scaring potential customers away from businesses on its own.

To help in the interim, economists and investors have been asking Congress to deliver another round of f inancial support for the economy.

Democratic and Republican legislators have been discussing a bipartisan possibility, which has raised hopes on Wall Street recently. But bitter partisanship has prevented a deal for months, and a deep divide still dominates on Capitol Hill.

Even without another round of stimulus, investors are facing a robust environment heading into next year that includes low inf lation and an accommodative Federal Reserve.

Across the Atlantic, hope was rising that talks are making progress in what has been just as frustrating as the stalemate in Washington — a potential deal on the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

The yield on the 10- year Treasury rose to 0.90% from 0.87% late Friday.