NEW YORK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2021) Wall Street had one of its strongest days on Monday since the crisis from COVID's Omicron strain broke, as shares of banks to auto, energy and technology firms rose amid a lack of negative headlines on the variant.
The three major US stock indices - the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite - closed up between 1% and almost 2% in a broad-based rally that had not been common since December 1, when the United States began reporting cases for the variant described as potentially more transmissible than other COVID strains.
The upbeat sentiment in equity markets came as leading US virologist Anthony Fauci offered encouraging comments over the weekend on the outlook for the Omicron, saying that early reports suggests it might be less severe than initially feared.
"Markets have been very headline-driven and this is just the latest rally on the back of some positive reports," Craig Erlam, analyst at online trading platform OANDA, said. "While this may be the first in a slew of positive data around the new variant, it could also be the anomaly and what follows could explain why world leaders and various agencies have been so anxious."
The Dow, which comprises mostly industrial stocks, closed up 647 points, or 1.9%, at 32,277. It lost almost 1% last week, extending the previous week's drop of nearly 2%.
The S&P 500, which groups the top 500 US stocks, finished up 52 points, or 1.2%, at 4,590. The S&P fell 1.2% last week, adding to the previous week's 2.2% drop.
The Nasdaq - which groups Big Tech Names such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google - settled up 140 points, or 0.9%, at 15,225. The index slumped 2.6% last week, after a 3.5% rout the previous week.
