Stocks tumbled on Tuesday, reversing Monday's rebound on Wall Street, as investors reassessed risks associated with the new omicron Covid variant.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 290 points, or 0.8%. The S&P 500 shed 0.64%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed about 0.4%. The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 dropped 0.7%.
Tuesday's reversal came after Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times that he expects existing vaccines to be less effective against the new variant. The CEO told the paper there could be a "material drop" in the current vaccines' effectiveness against this variant. Bancel told CNBC on Monday that it could take months to develop and ship an omicron-specific vaccine. Moderna was down nearly 4%.
Separately,Regeneron said its antibody treatment may have reduced effectiveness against omicron. Regeneron shares lost about 1%.
Travel shares, which led Friday's drop and then gained on Monday, were taking hits once again Tuesday.Expedia Group fell 2%,Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and American Airlines shares tumbled about 2%.
Bucking the broader market's trend, stay-at-home stock Netflix rose 1.4% and Tesla gained 1.5%.