Shares tumbled on Wall Street on Friday as they reopened after Thanksgiving, while European stocks saw their biggest sell-off in 17 months and oil prices plunged by $10 per barrel as fears over a new coronavirus variant sent investors scurrying to safe-haven assets.
This news correlated with the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday designating a new COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa with a large number of mutations as being "of concern," the fifth variant to be given the designation.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) closed down 2.53% at 34,899.34 in its largest percentage drop in more than a year. The S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 2.27%, its worst one-day drop since Feb. 25, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 2.23%, the biggest one-day route in two months.U.S. markets closed early on Friday after being shut all day on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.
It is very interesting to note that far from being gone, the pandemic still very much affects the economy with every new information being found on it. One might not make a correlation between oil prices and the pandemic, but it continues to show its affect on multiple facets and industries.
2 comments:
With the Delta variant that went around recently, I can see why the economy would react in such a way. The recent surge created a lot of uncertainty in the market and new supply chain shortages, and if the same thing happened, the same effect will likely be seen.
The widespread fear of variants is something that I feel is not going away anytime soon. After the destruction of COVID-19, news of variants will induce mass fear as everyone knows the speculative potential of destruction on the economy. Markets will be dependent on these variants going forward and how they're introduced and broadcasted to the public.
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