US equity markets declined amid growing concerns that the spread of new COVID-19 variants could upend economic growth expectations - Dow fell -260-points or -0.75%, dropping over >500-points earlier in the session. The broader S&P500 lost -0.86%, with Financials (down -1.97%), Industrials (-1.43%), Materials (-1.36%) and Communication Services (-1.05%) all falling over >1% and leading all eleven primary sectors into the red. Major banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc (down -2.37%), Bank of America Corp (-2.44%), JPMorgan Chase & Co (-1.73%) and Wells Fargo & Co (-2.49%) all fell as Treasury yields extended their decline. The technology-centric Nasdaq fell -0.72%, with chipmakers falling amid concerns around the pace of the global recovery. Applied Materials Inc fell -1.74%, Micron Technology -1.42% and Nvidia Corp -2.30%. Amazon.com Inc (up +0.90%) bucked the weaker trend among the technology majors. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 lost -0.94%.