© Getty ImagesStocks open with losses after cruising through records during chaotic week
Stocks sank as the market opened Monday after cruising through record highs for most of 2021.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 130 points roughly 30 minutes after trading began Monday, a loss of 0.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.8 percent and the S&P 500 index was down 0.5 percent.
After taking steep losses last Monday, stocks rebounded during the balance of the week despite a report showing December job losses, soaring coronavirus cases, and deadly riots at the U.S. Capitol that interrupted the counting of Electoral College votes and left five people dead.
"Rising cases of coronavirus and the swirl of events around President Trump could be contributing to this early weakness," wrote JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, in a Monday analysis.
"With earnings and data a bit thin today and tomorrow, it wouldn't be too surprising if the market keeps taking its cue from politics."
Wall Street had been optimistic that COVID-19 vaccinations and another economic relief bill proposed by President-elect Biden would provide more support to a fragile U.S. economy, which lost 140,000 jobs in December. Last month was the first month of job losses since April, when the U.S. lost more than 20 million jobs amid the onset of the pandemic.
But the prospect of an impeachment trial for President Trump that could stretch into Biden's first days in the White House has sparked fears that it could delay progress toward a coronavirus relief bill.
"Another big question hanging over Wall Street is whether Congress can push through another stimulus and if any stimulus effort conceivably could get slowed down by the current tension on Capitol Hill," Kinahan wrote.