The Dow Jones index dropped 0.16%, the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, lost 1.30% and the S&P 500 lost 0.60% around 3:15 p.m. GMT.

On Friday, after a hesitant session, the Dow Jones index had gained 0.53% to 33,203.93 points, the Nasdaq index had taken 0.21% to 10,497.86 points and the broader S&P 500 index had gained 0, 59% to 3,844.82 points.

Wall Street remained closed on Monday.

"The flow of news is thin as you would expect" during this truce of the confectioners, underlined Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

The traditional "Santa Claus Rally" or Santa Claus rally that usually occurs on Wall Street five days before Christmas and two days after, seemed out of reach this year.

"It's a traditionally positive time of year as investors take advantage of low trading volume to hunt for bargains," the analyst said.

Despite little action in a near-deserted week for economic indicators, "there is a bit of excitement in the market due to a new decision by China to distance itself from the zero tolerance policy vis-à-vis the Covid-19, so detrimental to the economy," said Mr. O'Hare.

China will end mandatory quarantines on arrival on January 8, the last vestige of its strict "zero Covid" health policy, authorities announced on Monday.

Listed, Tesla shares, which at this rate will have their worst year in 2022, still weighed on the Nasdaq, falling 6.15% to 115 dollars, a new low in two years.

Conflicting reports in the media circulated that the electric vehicle manufacturer should have slowed production at its Shanghai factory, following a resumption of Covid-19 infections.

The title was down for the seventh session in a row.

After a very rough weekend as a giant storm brought air travel to a standstill this holiday season, airline stocks took a nosedive.

Southwest Airlines, one of the companies that had to cancel the most flights over the weekend, lost almost 6% to 33.96 dollars.

Delta and American Airlines dropped more than 10%, the low-cost company JetBlue yielded 3.49% to 6.22 dollars.

The semiconductor sector was badly oriented with Nvidia losing 4.18% and AMD dropping almost 2%.

On the bond market, the yield on ten-year Treasury bills rose slightly to 3.79% from 3.74% at the previous close.

© 2022 AFP