(Reuters) - Technology stocks led a broad selloff on Wall Street on Monday, as the U.S. government shutdown threatens to spill into the next year and the White House moves into fire-fighting mode amid what is already the S&P 500’s worst December since the Great Depression.
All the 11 major S&P 500 .SPX sectors were lower, and all the 30 components of the Dow Industrials .DJI were in the red, pushing them closer to bear territory. However, trading volumes are expected to be muted, with markets closing at 1:00 p.m. ET ahead of the Christmas holiday, and could exaggerate movements.
The high-growth technology .SPLRCT and healthcare .SPXHC sectors continued to lead the retreat, dropping 1.5 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. Also lower were the FAANG stocks – Facebook Inc (FB.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Netflix Inc (NFLX.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Google-parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O).
“Volumes will be greatly reduced on a day like today and the twist is we have a lot of things going on. It will be interesting to see how the market digests all of this in a three-and-a-half hour session,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
“The main factor on investors’ minds is the government shutdown and what the resolution can be. It’s really fear of the unknown that has given investors grief.”
With the equity markets in free fall, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke with the chief executive officers of the six largest U.S. banks, who confirmed they have enough liquidity to continue lending and
