Wall Street Tumbles In December Debut After First US Case Of Omicron Variant Reported

NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2021) Wall Street made its December debut on an ominous note after the first US reported case of the novel coronavirus Omicron variant led stocks to close down more than 1% for a second day in a row.

"We've seen this movie before and Wall Street will likely remain COVID-19 variant headline driven until a clear assessment over this wave can be made," Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said on Wednesady.

Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average, which consists largely of industrial and leisure stocks that performed badly during most of the near two-year long pandemic, closed down 1.3%, extending the previous session's drop of 1.9%.

The S&P 500 index, which groups the top 500 US stocks, finished down 1.2%, adding to its near 2% decline on Tuesday.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, which shone during most of the pandemic due to the relative outperformance of Big Tech Names such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, did worse than the Dow and S&P500 on Wednesday. Nasdaq lost 1.8%, compounding the previous session's drop of 1.6%.

Notwithstanding Wednesday's declines, US stock indexes are still up substantially for the year. The Dow shows an 11% gain for all of 2021, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up 20% and 18%, respectively.

The first US individual infected with the Omicron variant was a California resident who had traveled home from South Africa on November 22, Dr. Anthony Fauci told a news conference. The person was fully vaccinated, has mild symptoms and is self-quarantining, Fauci said.