New York (AFP)

The Dow Jones plunged on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, weighed down by investors worried about the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and its potential impact on the global economy.

According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones index lost 2.09% to 33,962.04 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, dropped 1.06% to 14,274.98 points and the extended S&P 500 index dropped 1.59% to 4,258.51 points.

"The market has focused on the restrictions related to the coronavirus and what that means for economic activity," said Art Hogan, chief strategy officer at National Securities.

The analyst cited "an accumulation of bad news" in recent days, between tourists banned from the spectacle of the Olympic Games in Tokyo and wearing the mask again required in Los Angeles.

"People think other parts (of the United States) will follow," he warned.

"Investors seemed to want to protect themselves from risk" by flocking to Treasury bills in particular, said Schwab analysts.

Yields on 10-year US debt fell to 1.19%, their lowest level since February, against 1.29% on Friday.

Tensions between China and the United States over Beijing's "malicious cyber activities", according to Washington, have also weighed on the mood of investors.

The VIX index, which measures volatility on Wall Street, jumped almost 22%.

The eleven sectors of the S&P 500 all concluded in the red, starting with the energy sector which dropped 3.59% in the wake of falling oil prices after an OPEC + agreement to increase production while again the market wonders in the short term about demand.

Real estate lost 1.58%, the information technology sector 1.39%.

This atmosphere has relegated to the background the good business results expected for this busy week, with in particular the quarterly accounts of Netflix and United Airlines on Tuesday, Johnson and Johnson and Coca-Cola on Wednesday.

Investors in particular sold stocks of companies that could be affected by a return to restrictions.

Airlines have plunged like United Airlines (-5.54%) or American Airlines (-4.14%) which in session even fell by almost 7.50%.

The online video conferencing platform Zoom, which announced Sunday an agreement to buy back the specialist of customer services through the "cloud" Five9 for 14.7 billion dollars, lost 2.15% to 354.20 dollars.

Large banks continued to decline such as Bank of America (-2.61%), JPMorgan Chase (-3.25%) and Goldman Sachs (-2.76%), despite their good results announced last week.

Apple, whose action had reached an all-time high last week, dropped 2.69% to 142.45 dollars.

© 2021 AFP