US close: Stocks firmly in the red following record-setting week

Wall Street stocks closed firmly in the red on Monday following a record-setting Thanksgiving week.

At the closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.91% at 29,638.64, while the S&P 500 was 0.46% weaker at 3,621.63 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.06% softer at 12,198.74.

The Dow closed 271.73 points lower on Monday, reversing gains recorded in Friday's holiday-shortened session but still leaving the blue-chip index firmly on track for its best month since 1987.

Investors continued to monitor the heightened level of new Covid-19 cases across the US, with 13.0m confirmed cases and the coronavirus now having claimed the lives of more than 266,000 Americans, according to Johns Hopkins University, roughly four-and-a-half times the number of US lives lost as a result of the Vietnam War.

Infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci cautioned on Sunday that the US was now heading into an even more difficult period as far as the pandemic was concerned, one in which restrictions and travel advisories would be necessary, warning the country see a "surge upon a surge" over Christmas.

With the pandemic still in mind, Moderna revealed that final results in its Covid-19 vaccine trial had confirmed that its candidate was "highly effective" in preventing infection, with its shots showing a 94.1% efficacy. It will now submit a filing to the Food and Drug Administration, as well as its European equivalent, requesting emergency authorisations to distribute the vaccine.

Also weighing on sentiment was news that the White House was contemplating blacklisting major Chinese chipmaker SMIC and national offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC, escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of president-elect Joe Biden's transition into the Oval Office.

On the macro front, this month's Chicago purchasing managers' index dropped to 58.2 from 61.1, indicating that the record increase in US coronavirus cases was still impacting the economy.

Elsewhere, pending home sales fell for a second straight month in October, according to the National Association of Realtors, with its pending home sales index dropping 1.1% to 128.9.

Lastly, the Dallas Fed's November manufacturing index expanded for a sixth consecutive month, albeit at a markedly decelerated pace than in October to print at 7.2.

No major corporate earnings were released on Monday.