The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 500 points in midday trading on Tuesday with the other major indices falling too as investors showed renewed concern over surging cases of COVID-19 dragging on the global economic recovery.

The Dow later recovered somewhat, finishing the day down 282.12 points, or 0.79 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 31.63 points, or 0.71 percent, and the Nasdaq traded down 137.58 points, or 0.93 percent, lower.

“The Summer swoon that everyone has talked about appears to be beginning, but we still believe the strong fundamentals in the economy will allow stocks to end the year higher from here,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Independent Advisor Alliance, said.

He added that he expects the labor market to continue to recover in August and through the fall.

“The recent resurgence of Covid, due to the delta variant, is impacting consumer confidence and spending temporarily, but once we get through this new surge in new cases, we should resume our prior path of economic growth and, if we do, then the stock market will respond accordingly,” he said.

Shares of retailers and other heavily cyclical companies were among the hardest hit, with Home Depot stock tumbling 4.3 percent, after the company said it saw fewer sales in the latest quarter.

Rival Lowe’s fell more 5.8 percent, ahead of its earnings announcement Wednesday.

Shares of Walmart, which also reported earnings Tuesday morning, were down just slightly after it reported strong sales growth as customers returned to stores in the latest quarter.

Those earnings reports came amid reports that the White House will soon advise people to get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots eight months after initially getting the shots in order to bolster protection against the Delta variant, which has sent cases soaring in recent weeks.

Health care stocks were among the few bright spots in the market, with shares of Moderna rising 7.5 percent and Pfizer stock up 3.2 percent. Merck traded up 1.2 percent and Johnson & Johnson also traded just shy of 1 percent higher in the afternoon.

Tuesday’s losses come after the Dow and S&P 500 both finished Monday at record highs.

The sell-off came as investors digested new data from the Commerce Department on Tuesday that showed American shoppers pulled back their spending in July even more than economists had expected.

Retail sales for the month fell 1.1 percent from June, the feds said, a steeper decline than the 0.3 percent drop expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones, and comes after a 0.7 percent increase in June.

A steep drop in car sales drove much of that decline largely due to supply-chain issues and a global microchip shortage, helping to send shares of automakers lower Tuesday.

GM sank 4.7 percent while Ford lost 3.5 percent. Shares of Tesla fell 3 percent Tuesday.

Industrials were also hit hard, even though a separate economic report Tuesday showed that industrial production rose 0.9 percent, more than the 0.5 percent expected by economists.

Shares of GE fell 1.7 percent, Caterpillar lost 1.9 percent and 3M stock traded 1.4 percent lower.

Big tech wasn’t spared either, with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple all trading in the red.

The latest drop also comes after the stock market reached a critical point earlier this week, doubling from its pandemic bottom reached in March 2020.