(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window) * FLIR jumps to near 1-year high on $8 bln takeover deal * Tesla shares hit record high on strong 2020 deliveries * CBOE volatility index hits two-week high * Dow down 1.54%, S&P 500 down 1.55%, Nasdaq down 1.53% (Updates to mid-afternoon trade, adds new comment, details; changes byline) NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Shares on Wall Street fell sharply from all-time peaks on the first trading day of the year on Monday, as risk appetite ebbed amid upcoming runoff elections in Georgia and the persistent surge in coronavirus cases. The Dow, which touched a record high earlier in the session along with the S&P 500, was also dragged down by a more than 4% fall in Boeing Co’s shares after Bernstein cut its rating to “underperform,” saying issues with MAX 787 could significantly hurt the U.S. planemaker’s free cash flow. All three main indexes dropped to two-week lows from record highs, fueled by monetary stimulus and the start of vaccine rollouts. The fate of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda, meanwhile, including rewriting the tax code, boosting stimulus and infrastructure spending hinges firmly on Tuesday’s twin Senate races in the battleground state of Georgia that will determine control of the chamber. Wall Street’s fear gauge touched a two-week high on Monday. “Investors are feeling a bit nervous on the first trading day of the New Year and I think this is a confluence of factors,” said Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest, in Charlotte, North Carolina. She cited the rise in COVID-19 cases, the new virus variant that has spread around the world, and the Georgia Senate race. Total U.S. deaths from COVID-19 have reached more than 350,000. “Investors are at a point where they want to take breather while they assess all the different things coming in the new year,” Bell said. Almost all S&P sectors dropped with real estate, utilities and industrials posting the sharpest percentage declines. Consumer discretionary and materials hit all-time highs in early trading. At 2:00 p.m. ET (1900 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 456.14 points, or 1.49%, to 30,150.34, the S&P 500 lost 56.55 points, or 1.51%, to 3,699.52 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 194.50 points, or 1.51%, to 12,693.78. On the data front, U.S. manufacturing activity picked up at its briskest pace in more than six years in December, a survey showed on Monday. It comes on the heels of upbeat factory activity surveys across Europe and Asia earlier in the day. Some investors are cautious about the pace of economic growth as U.S. jobless claims remain stubbornly high, while a new round of pandemic-related restrictions last month and a new variant of the coronavirus have cast a shadow on the outlook. Tesla Inc’s shares extended a meteoric rally to scale a record high after the electric-car maker reported better-than-expected vehicle deliveries in 2020. Shares of FLIR Systems Inc jumped about 19% after Teledyne Technologies Inc agreed to buy the thermal imaging camera supplier for $8 billion in cash and stock. Teledyne’s shares dropped about 9%. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 54 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 148 new highs and 16 new lows. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan in Bengaluru; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Shounak Dasgupta)