Wall Street indices turn red on the rising delta variant risks

The major Wall Street indices climbed to record levels last week as companies continued to report positive earnings.

These are the dog days of August, and low volume and directionless volatility are the order of the moment with Q2 2021 earnings season mostly behind us, said Travis McCourt of Raymond James in a note.

Sectors that are taking a hit this morning

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On Monday morning, however, the benchmark S&P 500 index, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq Composite all lost close to 1.0% each, as investors took a step back on fears of a slowdown in global growth due to the delta variant of the Coronavirus. 

Weakness is evident across several sectors this morning, noted CNBC’s Bob Pisani on “Squawk on the Street”. Notable energy stocks like Exxon, Chevron, and Occidental Petroleum slipped on Monday as the Chinese economic data weighed on oil prices.

The Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and the Bank of America, lost roughly 1.0% this morning as the 10-year yield tanked to 1.238% ahead of tapering in the upcoming months. Materials, industrial, and travel stocks are also taking a hit today.

Sectors that are keeping resilient

Among the sectors keeping resilient on Monday is retail ahead of big names like Walmart, Kohl’s, and Home Depot scheduled to report quarterly results this week. Tech is also in the green as “moderate growth will do okay in this environment”, as per Pisani.

We haven’t talked about Biden, but there’s a lot of discussion about what if any damage to its political capital has happened as a result of Afghanistan, and that includes on the infrastructure negotiations, Pisani added.

According to FactSet, 87% of the S&P 500 companies have so far reported positive earnings – the highest since record-keeping began in 2008. This, Pisani said, was the reason behind the recent 52-week highs despite the looming risks.