S&P 500 Index bull's sapped of energy in the face of rising covid cases

• Wall Street retreats on surging covid cases and a rise in jobless claims.
• Investors fear that soaring cases will stifle growth in the world's largest economy. 

US stocks have been under pressure on surging COVID-19 cases and a rise in jobless claims.

At the time of writing, the S&P 500 Index is trading at 3,566 having travelled between a range of 3,543.84 and 3,570.63.

The index was set for its third straight session of losses, retreating further from its record closing high hit on Monday following positive data on a coronavirus vaccine.

COVID-19 cases continue to climb and in the absence of fresh stimulus measures and the concerns of stalling growth in the world's largest economy was amplified on today's data in Initial Claims for state unemployment benefits.

The data was tallying a seasonally adjusted 742,000 for the week ended Nov. 14. This was compared with 711,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 707,000 applications. 

Pfizer have said that final analysis of their vaccine suggests it is 95% effective, with no significant safety issues so far across the 44,000-participant trial. This puts it at par with the Moderna shot.

''All up, the path to inoculation and the reopening of borders may be shortening – this is certainly an upside risk to our outlook – but hurdles, such as further safety testing, approval, the scale of manufacture, and distribution still need to be cleared,'' analysts at ANZ Bank explained.

Meanwhile, market participants are now looking to the Federal Reserve for signs it could step in with fresh monetary stimulus.   

The Fed chose not to rock the boat last time around and has left monetary policy and its communications unchanged.

However, there is growing speculation that they will act to offer more support in the next meeting around as renewed Covid-19 containment measures weigh more heavily on the economic outlook.