Dow plunges 905 points in Black Friday selloff, books worst day in over a year as WHO declares new COVID ‘variant of concern’
U.S. stock benchmarks suffered withering losses on Friday as stock and commodity markets plunged, after scientists detected a new COVID variant in South Africa that could be to blame for a recent sharp surge in cases, especially in Europe.
U.S. markets were closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday and ended at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, three hours earlier than usual, and bond market trading ends at 2 p.m., an hour earlier than is typical.
How are stock-index futures trading?
- The S&P 500 SPX,
-2.27% fell 106.84 points, or 2.3%, to 4,594.62. - The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
-2.53% slumped 905.04 points, or 2.5%, to 34,899.34, with the index logging the worst daily drop since Oct. 28, 2020, according to FactSet data. - The decline for the Dow saw it mark its first close below its 50-day moving average at 35,261.93 since Oct. 14.
- The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP declined 353.57 points, or 2.2%, to15,491.66.
- The decline for the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq Composite posted their worst Black Friday performance since 1950.
On Wednesday, the Dow industrials DJIA,
What’s driving the market?
It was an ugly day for stock investors during a thinly traded Black Friday session, which was susceptible to big swings on alarming news from public health officials who were assessing a new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Late in the session, the World Health Organization’s technical advisory group assigned the B. 1.1.529 variant of the virus the Greek letter omicron and declared it a “variant of concern,” as it did with the delta variant.
Fear of a new variant overshadowed the usual focus on U.S. Black Friday shopping day, which puts the focus on retailers as consumers shop for bargains.
Particularly notable about the variant is the “large number of mutations, some of which are concerning,” the WHO group said in a statement. The mutations could make omicron more resistant to the current batch of vaccines.
The discovery of the new COVID strain was announced on Friday by South Africa’s health minister Joe Phaahla. He said scientists were concerned because of its high number of mutations and the dramatic surge in infections the country had seen over the past four or five days.
“The pandemic and COVID variants remain one of the biggest risks to markets, and are likely to continue to inject volatility over the next year(s),” wrote Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer and chief market strategist at Truist Advisory Services, in a Friday note. “It’s hard to say at this point how lasting or impactful this latest variant will be for markets,” the analyst wrote.
The omicron strain has been detected in Botswana and in Hong Kong in travelers who had visited South Africa.
“The one bull in the China shop that could truly derail the global recovery has always been a new strain of Covid-19 that swept the world and caused the reimposition of mass social retractions,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, at OANDA, in a note. “All we know so far is the B. 1.1.529 is heavily mutated but markets are taking no chances.”
“Just when you thought Covid was being controlled in a holiday shortened week,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research, in emailed comments.
“‘It makes sense to have a market significant correction given the high level of uncertainty.’”
Trading around the Thanksgiving holiday is often associated with lower trading volumes as traders typically wait until Monday to return to work. There was no U.S. economic data on the calendar for Friday.
After new cases stabilized at 200 a day, South Africa reported more than 1,200 on Wednesday and 2,465 on Thursday.
The U.K. government is banning flights from South Africa along with five other African nations, effective Friday.
“Predictably, energy, travel related and financials are the leading decliners and treasuries are rallying,” wrote Jay Hatfield, CEO and portfolio manager at Infrastructure Capital Management, in emailed comments on Friday.
“It makes sense to have a market significant correction given the high level of uncertainty,” the money manager wrote.
“At this stage very little is known,” Deutsche Bank strategists, led by Jim Reid, told clients in a note. “Mutations are often less severe so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions but there is clearly a lot of concern about this one. Also South Africa is one of the world leaders in sequencing so we are more likely to see this sort of news originate from there than many countries. Suffice to say at this stage no one in markets will have any idea which way this will go.”
Which companies are in focus?
- Drugmaker stocks were on the rise, including Pfizer PFE advanced by 6.1%, and Moderna MRNA stock rallied by about 21%.
- Travel-related stocks were on the backfoot: Expedia EXPE fell nearly 9,5%
- Shares of airliners and cruise ships Delta Air Lines DAL, fell 8.3%, Norwegian Cruise NCLH, down 11.4%, and Royal Caribbean RCL shares slid 13%, United Airlines UAL declined 9.6%, Southwest Airlines LUV shares dropped 4.3%, American Airlines’s AAL stock slumped 8.8%.
- Meanwhile, shares of companies associated with the stay-at-home trade were set to rise, including Netflix NFLX rose 1.1% and Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON,
+5.67% advanced 3.4%, while Zoom Video Communications Inc. shares ZM,+5.72% rallied 5.7%.
How are other markets faring?
- The 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y retreated by more than 10 basis points to ell to around 1.54%, versus 1.644% on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. The bond market was closed on Thursday in observance of U.S.
- The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, was down 0.7%.
- Gold futures for December delivery GCZ21 rose less than 0.1% to trade at $1,785.30 an ounce. U.S. oil futures CLF22 traded off more than 12% at around $68.27 a barrel.
- The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP closed 3.7% lower, and London’s FTSE 100 index UKX also gave up 3.6%.
- In Asia, the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP finished off 0.5% higher, while the Hang Seng Index HSI lost 2.7% in Hong Kong. China’s CSI 300 000300 declined 0.7% and Japan’s Nikkei 225 NIK finished 2.5% lower.
