Stock Market Today: Dow Sinks 433 Points to Start Christmas Week
Rising omicron COVID-19 cases and Senator Manchin's decision not to vote for the Build Back Better bill weighed on stocks today.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Today
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more delivered daily. Smart money moves start here.
Sent five days a week
Kiplinger A Step Ahead
Get practical help to make better financial decisions in your everyday life, from spending to savings on top deals.
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Closing Bell
Get today's biggest financial and investing headlines delivered to your inbox every day the U.S. stock market is open.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Adviser Intel
Financial pros across the country share best practices and fresh tactics to preserve and grow your wealth.
Delivered weekly
Kiplinger Tax Tips
Trim your federal and state tax bills with practical tax-planning and tax-cutting strategies.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Retirement Tips
Your twice-a-week guide to planning and enjoying a financially secure and richly rewarding retirement
Sent bimonthly.
Kiplinger Adviser Angle
Insights for advisers, wealth managers and other financial professionals.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Investing Weekly
Your twice-a-week roundup of promising stocks, funds, companies and industries you should consider, ones you should avoid, and why.
Sent weekly for six weeks
Kiplinger Invest for Retirement
Your step-by-step six-part series on how to invest for retirement, from devising a successful strategy to exactly which investments to choose.
Christmas week started with stocks seeing lots of red as investors hit the exits amid a slew of worries.
Most notably, a spike in the number of omicron COVID-19 cases, which prompted several countries to initiate new restrictions, including lockdowns, ahead of the holiday. (As a reminder, the stock market will be closed Friday for Christmas.)
Additionally, over the weekend, news emerged that Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, will not support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better (BBB) bill, putting the nearly $2 trillion social infrastructure package in danger of not making it through Congress.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
"A failure to pass BBB has negative growth implications," says a team of economists at Goldman Sachs. As such, "we are lowering our real gross domestic product forecast for 2022: 2% in Q1 (vs. 3% prior), 3% in Q2 (vs. 3.5% prior), and 2.75% in Q3 (vs. 3% prior)."
Just two sectors finished in the green today – utilities (+0.09%) and consumer staples (+0.03%) – with financials (-1.9%) suffering the steepest loss. Energy was another notable decliner, slumping 1.2% as U.S. crude futures fell 3% to $68.61 per barrel.
When the closing bell mercifully sounded, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.2% at 34,932, the S&P 500 Index had given back 1.1% to 4,568 and the Nasdaq Composite was off 1.2% to 14,980.
Other news in the stock market today:
- The small-cap Russell 2000 slumped 1.6% to 2,139.
- Gold futures slipped 0.6% to settle at $1,794.60 an ounce.
- Oracle (ORCL) slid 5.1% after the enterprise software firm said it will buy medical records company Cerner (CERN, +0.8%) in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $28.3 billion in equity value. The acquisition is the biggest ever for Oracle and is expected to close in 2022. "We think that acquiring CERN would allow ORCL to gain a much larger foothold in the healthcare industry," says Jefferies analyst Brent Thill (Hold). "From a strategic perspective, CERN would bring a massive health records dataset to ORCL and allow ORCL to further expand on the apps business side, while CERN stands to benefit from ORCL's broad suite of front- and backoffice apps to help consolidate its software systems and make a deeper push into the healthcare industry."
- Moderna (MRNA) jumped 8.9% out of the gate after the biotechnology firm said a third booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine is effective in protecting against the omicron variant. However, the shares moved lower as the session wore on, ending the day down 6.3%.
- Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $47,030.63. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
Is Tech Still a Good Bet in 2022?
Techs have taken a hit in the last week or so, but are still set to end the year as one of the best-performing sectors of 2021. At 27.3% gains year-to-date, the tech sector is running neck and neck with the financial sector (27.8%) and perched just behind energy (39.8%) and real estate (34.8%).
And looking ahead to 2022, there will be plenty of opportunities for growth in technology, says Tony DeSpirito, CIO of BlackRock's U.S. Fundamental Active Equities.
One specific area where he sees possibility is 5G technology. "Telecom companies will need to spend on upgrades and create new use cases for stimulating demand for 5G-powered technologies," he writes.
Additionally, he believes companies will continue to spend big on supporting both home and office systems in the new hybrid work environment. This is likely to benefit cloud stocks, which have benefited tremendously during the pandemic – and have a long runway of growth ahead of them.
Read on as we look at seven cloud stocks that could profit from substantial spending and growth in 2022 and beyond.
-
Nasdaq Slides 1.4% on Big Tech Questions: Stock Market TodayPalantir Technologies proves at least one publicly traded company can spend a lot of money on AI and make a lot of money on AI.
-
Should You Do Your Own Taxes This Year or Hire a Pro?Taxes Doing your own taxes isn’t easy, and hiring a tax pro isn’t cheap. Here’s a guide to help you figure out whether to tackle the job on your own or hire a professional.
-
Trump $10B IRS Lawsuit Hits an Already Chaotic 2026 Tax SeasonTax Law A new Trump lawsuit and warnings from a tax-industry watchdog point to an IRS under strain, just as millions of taxpayers begin filing their 2025 returns.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into AMD Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have TodayAdvanced Micro Devices stock is soaring thanks to AI, but as a buy-and-hold bet, it's been a market laggard.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into UPS Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have TodayUnited Parcel Service stock has been a massive long-term laggard.
-
How the Stock Market Performed in the First Year of Trump's Second TermSix months after President Donald Trump's inauguration, take a look at how the stock market has performed.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into Lowe's Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have TodayLowe's stock has delivered disappointing returns recently, but it's been a great holding for truly patient investors.
-
If You'd Put $1,000 Into 3M Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's What You'd Have TodayMMM stock has been a pit of despair for truly long-term shareholders.
-
Stocks Rise to the Spirit of the Season: Stock Market TodayInvestors, traders and speculators are beginning to like the looks of a potential year-end rally.
-
Nasdaq Leads as Tech Stages Late-Week Comeback: Stock Market TodayOracle stock boosted the tech sector on Friday after the company became co-owner of TikTok's U.S. operations.
-
Nasdaq Sinks 418 Points as Tech Chills: Stock Market TodayInvestors, traders and speculators are growing cooler to the AI revolution as winter approaches.
