Markets drop after opening 2021 with new records

Stock markets climbed to new records to start 2021 in the first minutes of trading Monday, only to drop into the red shortly thereafter.

In morning trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 250 points, or 0.8 percent, and the S&P 500 dropped 20 points, or 0.5 percent.

Stocks closed out strong in 2020 despite an unprecedented economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the government pumped massive amounts of cash into the economy and the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to zero.

The quick development of a COVID-19 vaccine and hopes that the crisis would abate in 2021 helped markets recover from huge initial losses in February and March to make overall gains by year’s end.

All eyes are now on Georgia’s two Senate runoff races scheduled for Tuesday. If Democrats sweep both contests, they will flip the Senate and control both chambers of Congress and the White House, albeit by the slimmest of margins.

— Updated at 10:27 a.m.