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The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.1 percent, its biggest one-day loss this year.

Yields on government bonds also slid as investors turned to them in search of a less-risky place to park their cash — bond yields fall as their prices rise. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes slid to 1.19 percent.

“There’s a fear that this is as good as it’s going to get for risky assets,” said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda, a currency exchange. “We’re still in the early stages of earnings season, where we’re going to see companies continue to voice concerns over pricing pressures.”

Consumers are also worried about the rise in prices. A consumer survey released by the University of Michigan on Friday showed that the inflation rate had become a primary concern for households, leading to a drop in consumer sentiment in early July. On Thursday, Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, told the Senate Banking Committee that inflation had risen to uncomfortably high levels and said that he and his colleagues were watching price gains carefully.

The drop on Monday came with the S&P 500 close to record highs. Even after Monday’s decline, the index had gained more than 13 percent this year as investors bet on economic recovery, though there have been short, turbulent stretches amid concerns about growth and inflation. The rise of the Delta variant seemed to give investors a new reason to pull back.

The highly contagious variant now makes up the majority of new cases in the United States, which are now averaging over 31,000 a day. Los Angeles County on Sunday became the first major county to revert to requiring masks for all people indoors in public spaces.

Cases are also rising fast in Europe and Asia. In recent days, Indonesia has emerged as the epicenter of the current outbreak, after overtaking India and Brazil as the nation with the highest count of new infections, and Singapore on Monday said that it was facing the highest levels of infection in almost a year.

In Japan, more than two dozen athletes, coaches, referees and others participating in the Tokyo Olympics have tested positive for the virus. A teenage alternate on the U.S. women’s gymnastics team tested positive for the coronavirus, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee confirmed Monday.

Oil prices fell after major oil producers reached a deal on Sunday to increase production. OPEC and Russia agreed to pump more oil next month, increasing worldwide supply by 2 percent by the end of the year, but supplies are likely to remain tight until at least the fall, analysts said. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, dropped 7.5 percent to $66.42 a barrel. Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation fell 4.3 percent while ConocoPhillips dropped 3.2 percent.

To economists, however, recessions aren’t simply periods of financial hardship. They are periods of economic contraction, as measured by employment, income, production and other indicators. Once growth resumes, the recession is over, no matter how deep a hole remains. The recession that accompanied the 2008 financial crisis, for example, ended in June 2009 — four months before the unemployment rate hit its peak, and years before many Americans began to experience a meaningful rebound.

The unusual nature of the pandemic-induced economic collapse challenged the traditional concept of a “recession.” The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months.” Taken literally, the latest downturn fails that test — the recession lasted mere weeks. But the bureau’s Business Cycle Dating Committee decided that the contraction should count nonetheless.

“The committee concluded that the unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warranted the designation of this episode as a recession, even though the downturn was briefer than earlier contractions,” the committee said in a statement.

The company had prepared ads for the event but will not air them because of concerns that emphasizing its connection to the Games could create a backlash, said a person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Toyota will continue its commitments to supporting Olympic athletes and providing transportation services during the Games, a spokesman said.

The company’s decision is “a big body blow to the Olympics,” said David Droga, the founder of the Droga5 ad agency.

“You’d think that Toyota would be through thick and thin all in, but obviously the situation is more polarizing than we realize,” he said.

The vast majority of the Japanese public is opposed to holding the Games — set to begin on Friday — under current conditions, polling shows, with many calling for them to be canceled outright.

The Japanese authorities and Olympic officials have played down the concerns, saying strict precautions against the coronavirus will allow the Games to be held safely.

Anxieties have continued to mount, however. This month, Tokyo entered its fourth state of emergency in an effort to stop a sudden rise in virus cases as the country faces the more contagious Delta variant. Cases, which remain low in comparison with many other developed nations, have exceeded 1,000 a day in the city, raising apprehension that measures that had succeeded in controlling the spread of the coronavirus could be losing their effectiveness.

Further complicating the situation is a steady drip of news reports about Olympic staff and athletes testing positive for the illness after arriving in Japan.

Toyota became a top Olympic sponsor in 2015, joining an elite class of corporate supporters that pay top dollar for the right to display the iconic rings of the Games in their advertising.

Until the pandemic hit, the company was one of the most visible supporters of the Olympics. In the run-up to the event, much of Tokyo’s taxi fleet was replaced with a sleek, new Toyota model prominently featuring the company’s logo alongside the Olympic rings. And the company pledged to make the event a showcase for its technological innovations, including self-driving vehicles to ferry athletes around the Olympic Village.

Toyota’s move could prompt other brands to follow suit, but several advertising experts do not expect a ripple effect.

“If you’re a Coca-Cola type, I don’t think it’ll be a retreat — the benefits of being a global sponsor will still work its magic in the U.S. and all the other countries,” Mr. Droga said. “It’s different when you’re in the center, actually in Japan, because that’s where the biggest contrast is going to be, where the Olympics aren’t like previous Olympics.”

Many companies are afraid of sacrificing more exposure, said Rick Burton, a sports management professor at Syracuse University and the chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008.

“My guess is that they’re going to try and push through so that they don’t lose the investment completely,” he said. “There’s an interesting calculus: If I pull out, how does that get translated in every language? In certain countries, it could seem like I did the right thing, but in others, it could be that I abandoned the one thing that gave the world hope.”

That fits into the company’s stated goal of “democratizing finance,” but it could also make trading in the offering even more volatile than in a traditional stock sale, potentially opening itself to even more criticism.

In the updated prospectus, Robinhood also provided estimates for how it performed in the second quarter, including continued growth in revenue and paying customers from the first three months of the year. Its net loss also shrank, though the first quarter had included a one-time accounting charge related to the billions of dollars it had raised earlier in the year.

It is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq market by the end of next week.

Freedom Day was also remarkably warm, further discouraging would-be office workers from a sweaty commute.

Robert Cane, an employee at a shoe repair shop in the City, said he was not sure business would pick up until next year, if ever. Last week, he had barely more than a hundred customers. Noting that some businesses have reduced their office space over the past year, he said, “I don’t think it’s ever going back to normal here.”

Most large employers are keeping voluntary return-to-office plans, and many require mask-wearing away from desks and are limiting office capacity to prevent crowding. The government has said there needs to be “personal and corporate responsibility” over some measures with a gradual return to the office. For example, the Bank of England is asking staff to return only once a week starting in September. But there was some loosening of policies on Monday inside the central bank — restrictions on the use of elevators were eased, and extra spaces between desks will be removed.

Among other employers:

• At the London offices of JPMorgan Chase, where 12,000 employees usually work, masks were still needed to be worn in communal spaces and meeting rooms, and social-distancing indicators were still marked around the buildings. Capacity is capped at 50 percent, but recently not much more than 30 percent of workers have been coming to the office. The biggest change on Monday was that employees from any team were allowed to return to their office if they wished. Over the summer, the bank intends to gradually raise the capacity limit.

• At Goldman Sachs, which has its 826,000-square-foot European headquarters in the City of London, health and safety measures stayed the same. Workers must wear a mask when not sitting at their desk and continue to take part in the on-site testing program. Social distancing will reduce the office’s normal capacity. Recently, an average of 30 percent to 40 percent of the bank’s 6,500 employees have been in the office.

• Goldman Sachs is also monitoring vaccination rates from voluntary surveys of its staff, which has shown a “significant upward trajectory” since June, according to an internal memo. “We will continue to monitor local case rates and public health safety guidance, and will update our in-office protocols as and when appropriate,” the memo, sent by Richard Gnodde, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs International.

• In the central London offices of Blackstone, the investment giant, employees must still adhere to mask-wearing and social-distancing guidelines, though disclosing their vaccination status remained optional. But working from the office was voluntary, and the firm has not yet set a date for a mandatory return.

• SoftBank Investment Advisers, the London arm of the Japanese technology giant SoftBank that oversees its Vision Funds, has kept in-office attendance voluntary. Employees must reserve desks in advance and observe social distancing guidelines; masks are optional but recommended.

• Employees at the London headquarters of Unilever, the consumer products conglomerate, must wear masks while walking around the building, but not while at their desks. Social-distancing guidelines remain in place, effectively capping how many people can be at work.

• McKinsey & Company is beginning to ease restrictions, and in parts of the London office, masks will be required only in busy areas, the one-way system will be removed and the seating in meeting rooms will not be reduced. Elsewhere, restrictions will stay the same, and there is still no requirement to return to the office.

• Dentons, a large law firm in the City, recently introducing a flexible working policy so its employees can choose whether to work in the office. For those in the office, little has changed: Staff members are restricted to the floor they are working from; masks don’t need to be worn on that floor but are still needed in and out of the building and in the elevators; and social distancing is still encouraged.

Even Prime Minister Boris Johnson worked from home on Freedom Day, as he, too, has been pinged by the National Health Service to self-isolate for 10 days. From his isolation, he announced on Monday that by the end of September, it will be mandatory to show proof of vaccination to enter nightclubs and other places with large crowds.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

The deal called for Pershing Square Tontine to invest $4 billion for a 10 percent stake in Universal Music, which was already being taken public by its parent, Vivendi. That would have left $1.5 billion in the investment vehicle, which would have been rolled over into a new publicly traded acquisition fund that would have looked to do another deal. Existing investors in Pershing Square Tontine would have received a financial instrument that gave them the right to buy into yet another deal vehicle, which would seek its own takeover target.

While Mr. Ackman’s SPAC is stepping back from the Universal Music deal, Mr. Ackman is not — his hedge fund will buy the stake directly instead.

Pershing Square Tontine now has 18 months to find and close a new deal, unless shareholders give it more time, and “our next business combination will be structured as a conventional SPAC merger,” Mr. Ackman said.

• Southwest Airlines and American Airlines earnings: Delta Air Lines last week said domestic leisure travel had fully recovered to 2019 levels. But there’s still a huge question whether businesses will continue to curb travel, perhaps permanently.

Friday

• Tokyo Summer Olympics: The event, delayed a year, begins as the city of Tokyo is under a state of emergency because of the pandemic. Most spectators are banned in response to a sudden jump in coronavirus cases. NBC Universal will also offer highlights from the games and coverage of the men’s basketball contest on its year-old streaming service Peacock.

The luxury industry has been resilient, as consumers have kept up spending on jewelry, apparel and other indulgences — including as the global economy slowly emerges from a pandemic. Shares of LVMH, whose brands include Dior, Stella McCartney and Fenty, are up more than 60 percent this year; those in Kering, the parent of labels like Gucci and Saint Laurent, are up 45 percent.

For much of its existence, Zegna was known primarily as a top-tier maker of men’s wear fabrics and, later, suiting. (It still makes suits for other high-end labels, notably Tom Ford.) But with its purchase in 2018 of a majority stake in the fashion label Thom Browne, Zegna began its own ambitious plan to become a stable of luxury brands.

Zegna now runs nearly 300 stores in 80 countries. And in a sign of optimism about revived consumer spending on fashion, the company expects its sales this year to come close to prepandemic levels.

While Zegna’s pursuit of more resources to expand is not novel, how it is doing so is.

It is merging with a SPAC — formally known as a special purpose acquisition company — a fund that is raised in the stock markets solely for the purpose of merging with a privately held company and giving it a stock listing.

“We will continue to invest in creativity, innovation, talent and technology in order to sustain Zegna’s leadership position in the global luxury market,” Ermenegildo Zegna, the company’s chief executive and grandson of its founder, said in a statement.

Such funds have exploded in popularity over the past two years for allowing companies to join stock markets more quickly than through a traditional initial public offering. (SPACs have increasingly come under scrutiny by regulators in the United States, where most of these funds are listed.)

Merging with Zegna is a fund run by Investindustrial, a European investment firm. The deal will give Zegna about $880 million in fresh cash while allowing its founding family to retain a roughly 62 percent stake.

“Our goal now is to support Zegna in this important new chapter of its history while opening the opportunity to the public to invest in one of the last great iconic independent luxury brands,” Sergio Ermotti, the chairman of the Investindustrial SPAC, said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending approval by the SPAC’s shareholders.

Vanessa Friedman contributed reporting.

Chinese officials would welcome any unilateral American move to dismantle tariffs, according to two people involved in Chinese policymaking. But China is not willing to halt its broad industrial subsidies in exchange for a tariff deal, they said.

Academic experts in China share the government’s skepticism that any quick deal can be achieved.

“Even if we go back to the negotiating table, it will be tough to reach an agreement,” said George Yu, a trade economist at Renmin University in Beijing.

In a blog post on Saturday, Facebook called on the administration to stop “finger pointing,” laid out what it had done to encourage users to get vaccinated, and detailed how it had clamped down on lies about the vaccines.

“The Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, said in the post. “The fact is that vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the U.S. has increased.”

Mr. Rosen said that the company’s data showed that 85 percent of its U.S. users had been or wanted to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The country fell short of meeting President Biden’s target of having 70 percent of American adults vaccinated by July 4, but, Mr. Rosen said, “Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.”

On Sunday, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, reiterated warnings that false stories about the vaccines had become a dangerous health hazard. “These platforms have to recognize they’ve played a major role in the increase in speed and scale with which misinformation is spreading,” Mr. Murthy said on the CNN program “State of the Union.”

On Monday, Mr. Biden called on Facebook’s officials to consider the impact the spread of misinformation about the vaccine could have on people they cared about.

“Look in the mirror,” Mr. Biden said. “Think about that misinformation going to your son, your daughter, your relative, someone you love. That’s all I’m asking.”