Wall Street lost ground on Tuesday, retreating from intraday highs, while oil prices gained ground as investors looked to Washington for signs that an enhanced stimulus package would pass a U.S. Senate vote.

All three major U.S. stock indexes oscillated, at one point following the MSCI World Stocks index .WORLD to record intraday highs, but ended the session in negative territory as market participants balanced near-term challenges with longer-term hopes for economic recovery and a return to healthy demand.

Light trading volume in a holiday-shortened week can fuel market volatility.

"(It's) the kind of day where you don't have a full team on the bench, so it doesn't take much to move things around," said Stephen Massocca, senior vice president at Wedbush Securities in San Francisco. "It is easy to get things snowballing this entire week, so you have to be careful."

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Monday to meet President Donald Trump's demand for $2,000 direct payments, an increase from originally approved $600, to Americans as part of the recently signed fiscal relief bill, sending the measure to the Republican-controlled Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked an effort to approve the direct payments by unanimous consent, but said the chamber would address the increased stimulus checks this week. upcoming U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia, the size of direct payment checks Americans receive could be a sensitive topic. The elections will determine which party controls the Senate.

"This probably the most political issue of the year because it could cost the Republicans the Senate, if voters feel they blocked it," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York, adding "there will probably be some movement on it and that would be positive for the market."

Vaccine trials and distribution are gathering momentum around the world as global COVID-19 cases https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 surpass 81 million and deaths approach 1.8 million. In the United States, there have been more than 19 million cumulative cases and nearly 335,000 deaths. Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 68.3 points, or 0.22%, to 30,335.67, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 8.32 points, or 0.22%, to 3,727.04 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 49.20 points, or 0.38%, to 12,850.22.

Reference by: Investing.com