U.S. Markets Jump Back Up; Omicron Variant Worries
Stocks in the U.S. markets moved up and bonds fell as the global market bounced back from Friday’s sell-off. Investors are currently reassessing their worst-case scenarios for the next virus outbreak.
The S&P 500 is now in green for the month of November, led by gains in energy, technology, and retail shares. NASDAQ is also in the green for the month. Major vaccine makers around the world have said that a new vaccine can be developed to fight the Omicron variant in 100 days.
Stoxx Europe is up by 1.22%
Dow Jones is up by 0.36%
NASDAQ is up by 1.48%
South African Doctor says Omicron Early says symptoms different to Delta
People infected by Omicron in South Africa are said to be showing very different symptoms to those suffering from the Delta strain. It was said by the Doctor who first alerted authorities on the existence of the new strain. Patients who contracted it complain of fatigue, head and body aches and occasional sore throats and coughs. Current symptoms are said to be mild.
Jack Dorsey Stepping Down as Twitter CEO
Jack Dorsey, the co-founder, and CEO of Twitter is stepping down, according to a person familiar with the situation. Shares of the company are up 3.5% now.
Dorsey is also the head of payments company Square and is said to be focussing his efforts on cryptocurrencies and NFT recently.
German Car Exports Drop 17.2% In Q3
According to data from the German Federal Statistics Office, Germany’s car exports dropped 17.2% in the third quarter ended September majorly due to chip shortages and other supply problems. The world’s fourth-largest economy exported cars for a total of 23.1 billion euros (Rs 1,95,572 crores) and imported cars for an amount of 11.2 billion euros(Rs 94,812 crores) during the period. These are the lowest quarterly levels since the Q2 of 2020.
African Development Bank Postpones Its Annual Investment Forum
The African Development Bank on Monday postponed its annual investment forum which was scheduled to be held in Ivory Coast this week on the concern of Omicron cases. The bank’s President Akinwumi Adesina said that lives are the most important, everything comes after that. During the forum, it was expected to announce investments valued at $110 billion to help the country recover from the pandemic hit. Looking into the vaccination stats, the numbers are really bad as only less than 7% of the population have received the vaccination.
Binance Reopens Dogecoin Withdrawals
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange said on Monday that it has fully opened withdrawals of Dogecoin which was affected due to a technical glitch. Elon Musk tweeted the issue as“sounds shady and some heat was bright up after Binance CEO posted a link to a story about Musk’s Tesla recalling nearly 12,000 cars as the result of a software glitch. Binance said the glitch was an unlikely and unfortunate coincidence and no employee will be fired because of this.
Omicron is Not A Reason To Cancel Flights: Ryanair CEO
Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said on Monday that currently Omicron is not a reason to cancel flights and the flights are seeing heavy booking for the next few weeks. However, he also said that the company is was worried about some countries potentially shutting air travel.
