The S&P 500 and the Dow sink by 2% as virus surge

On Monday, the S&P 500 and the Dow indexes dropped more than 2% as investors sold off shares and stocks.

New infections surged in some parts of England and Asia, while U.S. COVID-19 cases rose by 70% by the Delta variant.

All 11 S&P sectors fell this year, with the value stocks, including materials, industrial, financial, and energy, between 2.6% and 4.5%.

The banking index fell by 3.6%, following a fall in the 10-year Treasury yield to its lows in February.

Managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in New Jersey, Andre Bakhos, said that there’s a concern between investors that the Delta variant might reset the clock regarding the progress they made with COVID-19.

On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 closed a winning round with defensive sectors, regarded as relatively safe during economic uncertainty.

Stock market overview

On Monday, the Nasdaq index outperformed the broader market as investors gathered to the growth-related stocks that helped Wall Street to recover from its coronavirus-lows.

Head of the asset allocation at Pacific Life Fund Advisors in Newport Beach, California, Max Gokhman, said that this is a plan for investors to prevent the risk of COVID-19. He also said that the tech stocks would manage to do better in a less stable situation, as they are less sensitive to customers whether they increase their spending on services.

Still, by 01:45 p.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.41%, to 14,25.71.

Compared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average that fell 904.87 points, or 2.62%, and was on track for its worst session since 2020, the S&P 500 moved 2.05% and marked for its biggest one-day percentage fall in May.

Economically sensitive small transports and caps were down between 1.6% and 1.8%.

The CBOE volatility index jumped to a two-month high this year.