Wall Street hits week's low in thin trading, elevated yields add pressure

Wall Street's main stock indexes opened sharply lower on Monday and hit their lowest in over a week, as sparse trading volumes and the specter of elevated Treasury yields cast a cloud over the traditionally strong year-end rally for equities.

At 09:57am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 651.52 points, or 1.52 per cent, to 42,340.69, the S&P 500 lost 89.52 points, or 1.51 per cent, to 5,881.32 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 326.47 points, or 1.66 per cent, to 19,397.26.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors fell, with consumer leading declines discretionary Growth stocks such as Tesla and Meta dropped 3.1 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively.

Chip company Broadcom lost 3.8 per cent, sending the semiconductor index more than two per cent lower.

The weakness was atypical as equities tend to do well in the last five trading days of December and into the first two days of January, a phenomenon dubbed the Santa Claus rally. The S&P 500 has gained 1.3 per cent on average during the period since 1969, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.