The new COVID-19 variant now has a name with omicron deemed a ‘variant of concern’ by the WHO and the US placing travel restrictions on South Africa and eight other African countries.
US stock markets did not like the news with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all down over 2% in what was a Black Friday shortened session.
Energy stocks bore the brunt of the sell-off, with the sector down 4% as another round of lockdowns threaten consumption, placing pressure on the popular ‘value trade’.
Financials were next, falling more than 2% with American Express (NYSE: AXP) down over 8%.
Naturally, travel stocks suffered significant selling pressure, with Boeing (NYSE: BA) down 5% and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) down closer to 10%, as travel bookings and hopes of a full return to recovery were dashed.
COVID stocks rally
As has been the case in most recent sell-offs, quality and growth have won over ‘value’ sectors with stay-at-home trades including Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM) and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) seeing the return of investors, adding 5% and 1% respectively, and healthcare companies, including Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) jumping by over 20%.
US stock markets post steep weekly loss
The sell-off brought losses for the week to 2.7% for the Dow, 2.3% for the S&P 500 and 3.1% for the Nasdaq.
Interestingly, Bitcoin has continued its fall, down another 7% amid the volatility, taking losses to 20% in the last few weeks.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks performed on Friday to close out the week.
- Peloton (NASDAQ: PTON) up 5.7%
- DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) up 2.5%
- Twilio (NSYE: TWLO) up 2.2%
- Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) down 2.7%
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) down 3.2%
- Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) down 7.2%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is tipped to tumble at the open on Monday as the Omicron variant weighs on the market. For a round-up of the latest news, check out my ASX 200 morning report.