Dow ends 1.4% lower as investors continue to weigh coronavirus outlook

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 on Monday dropped for the first time in three sessions as investors continued to weigh the coronavirus outlook.

The 30-stock Dow ended 328.60 points lower, or 1.4 percent, at 23,390.77. The S&P 500 fell 1 percent to 2,761.63.

Caterpillar was the worst-performing stock in the Dow, dropping by more than 8 percent, triggered by a downgrade from a Bank of America analyst. Financials and real estate led the S&P 500 lower, with both sectors diving by more than 3.5 percent.

But the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite bucked the broader market’s negative trend, gaining 0.5 percent to 8,192.42 as Netflix climbed 7 percent to a 52-week high, Amazon added 6.2 percent, and Intel grew 2.7 percent.

The U.S. stock market had one of its biggest weekly gains ever last week, with the Dow having posted its seventh-best weekly performance, gaining 12.7 percent. The S&P 500 had last week saw its biggest one-week gain since 1974, climbing by 12.1 percent.

Last week’s strong gains came in large part because of an apparent improvement in the U.S. coronavirus outlook in addition to the massive stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve.