By Sinead Carew
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell from record levels on Tuesday as a sharp drop in oil prices hurt energy stocks and some investors were wary of a congressional election in Georgia.
Healthcare <.SPXHC> was the brightest spot in the market while consumer discretionary <.SPLRCD> stocks were some of the weakest with a 1.1 percent drop after news of an Amazon.com
Oil prices nosedived to seven-month lows after news of increases in supply by several key producers, a trend that has undermined attempts by OPEC and other producers to support the market through reduced output.
The S&P energy index <.SPNY> was the weakest of the S&P's 11 sectors with a 1 percent drop. The drop in oil prices also appeared to affect the broader market beyond energy, according to Stephen Massocca, Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco.
"A lot of stocks that have absolutely nothing to do with oil are impacted by this," said Massocca.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> was down 31.48 points, or 0.15 percent, to 21,497.51, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 12.2 points, or 0.50 percent, to 2,441.26 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 36.23 points, or 0.58 percent, to 6,202.79.
Many investors were likely holding their fire on Tuesday ahead of a congressional election in Atlanta, according to Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James Financial in St. Petersburg, Florida.
He sees the race - the costliest U.S. congressional race in history - between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel as a political test for President Donald Trump's pro-business agenda.
"If the Republican wins you'll get a rally on that because it means the Trump agenda has a better chance of passing than if the Democrat wins," said Saut.
The health index <.SPXHC> was the only gainer among the 11 major S&P sectors, with a rise of 0.5 percent. Nasdaq's biotechnology index <.NBI> was up 2 percent after a 2.5 percent jump in the previous day's session.
The S&P technology sector <.SPLRCT> was down 0.5 percent, with big names such as Apple
The tech sector had finished up 1.7 percent the previous day after two straight weeks of losses on concerns about valuation.
On Tuesday, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said that the era of low interest rates in the United States and elsewhere poses financial stability risks and that central bankers must factor such concerns into their decision-making.
Chipotle
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.03-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 49 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 99 new highs and 87 new lows.
(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)