⁍ All major S&P sectors were trading lower with economically-sensitive energy, industrial and financials recording the steepest percentage declines.

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⁍ New infections have touched record levels in the United States, with El Paso in Texas asking citizens to stay at home for the next two weeks.

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⁍ It is also one of the busiest week of the third-quarter earnings season that will see results from mega-cap U.S. tech firms.

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– US stocks fell sharply on Monday as surging coronavirus cases and a stalemate in Washington over the next fiscal aid bill darkened the economic outlook in the run up to the Nov. 3 presidential election, Reuters reports. New infections have touched record levels in the United States, with El Paso in Texas asking citizens to stay at home for the next two weeks. In Europe, Italy and Spain imposed new restrictions. “The harsh reality is it’s going to be very difficult to get as much as the $2 trillion deal even if they have something today or tomorrow,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial, North Carolina. “It’s not going to happen until after the election.” Meanwhile, more than 59.1 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail as President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden enter their final week of campaigning. It is also one of the busiest week of the third-quarter earnings season that will see results from mega-cap US tech firms including Apple Inc AAPL.O, Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O, Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O and Facebook Inc FB.O. Of the 135 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 83.7% of them have beaten Wall Street expectations, according to Refinitiv data. The S&P 500 index recorded two new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 20 new lows.