Dow futures tumble over 700 points on fears over new COVID variant detected in South Africa

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: MarketWatch

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Dow futures tumble over 700 points on fears over new COVID variant detected in South Africa

Last Updated: Nov. 26, 2021 at 5:51 a.m. ET
First Published: Nov. 26, 2021 at 1:38 a.m. ET

By Barbara Kollmeyer

Oil prices slump, gold surges

U.S. stock futures slumped Friday as global markets plunged, after scientists detected a new COVID variant in South Africa that could be the blame for a recent dramatic spike in cases.

Investors are returning to a shortened day of trading following the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

How are stock-index futures trading?
-- S&P 500 futures ES00, -1.66% fell 84 points, or 1.8%, to 4,615
-- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YM00, -2.20% slumped 789 points, or 2.2%, to 34960
-- Nasdaq-100 futures NQ00, -0.91% fell 1.2%, or 193 points, to 16,173

On Wednesday, the Dow industrials DJIA, -0.03% fell 9.42 points to finish nearly flat at 35,804.38. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.23% slipped 0.2% to close at 4,701.46, just 0.1% below its Nov. 18 record close of 4,704.54, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.44% rose 0.4% to 15,84.23.

What's driving the market?

The discovery of the new COVID variant 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 spike in infections the country had seen over the past four or five days.

Speaking at an online press conference, he said the variant, known as B.1.1.529 and expected to be called the Nu variant, had also been detected in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers who had visited South Africa, he said. The World Health Organization's technical working group is holding an emergency meeting to assess the variant, as scientists aren't sure whether is more deadly or just more contagious.

"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."

{snip}

Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-tumble-400-points-on-fears-over-new-covid-variant-detected-in-south-africa-11637908694

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I generally don't post threads about "the Dow is up so many points" or "the Dow is down so many points," but this was a big deal on the network radio news this morning.

[Tomconroy]

1. I got drunk and passed out after the Thanksgiving dinner.

Has there been any news about Covid?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. No, but Trump was reinstalled. NT

[Tomconroy]

3. If that's all, I'm going back to sleep.

[twodogsbarking]

4. What's driving the market?

The people with the big money. Crumbs for us.

[oldsoftie]

5. People just wont accept "reimposition of mass social retractions" anymore

Not here anyway. And the EU is showing that they're pretty much done with them too.
If the unvaccinated are still the biggest risk the problem will eventually take care of itself. Meanwhile, the vaccine developers will improve on what we've got now. As well as new treatments

[LudwigPastorius]

17. "If the unvaccinated are still the biggest risk the problem will eventually take care of itself."

Not if this new mutation is an "escape variant" that can evade the immunity from a vaccine or previous infection.

[oldsoftie]

18. I do worry abou that. And even MORE variants developing.

But we're simply not going to be able to FORCE everyone to get the shot. And i'd bet 1/2 the people here on DU wont go along with another shutdown either. Not to mention the rest of the population. This shit started 2 years ago. The only way out is better treatments & better vaccines. Its not going away

[Lonestarblue]

6. Western countries need to work as hard as they can to get those in poorer countries vaccinated.

The virus will just continue to mutate and cause havoc around the world without mass vaccinations. Perhaps if the US announced a deadline for when free vaccines will be available here and said that all available doses except for a small stockpile would be going to Africa, the deplorables might want the vaccine, if for no other reason than to prevent it going to black people. Knowing they would have to pay to get the shot later might convince a few. The government also needs to stop subsidizing treatment for those with health insurance. Let the insurance companies raise the rates on the insured who refuse to be vaccinated.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Covid-19 vaccine producers were jumping premarket as pandemic fears took hold of markets...

Covid-19 vaccine producers were jumping premarket as pandemic fears took hold of markets, with Pfizer adding 5.3% premarket and Moderna climbing 8.3%

Link to tweet

Didi, Zoom Video, Carnival, Peloton, Moderna: What to Watch When the Stock Market Opens Today
Vaccine makers are jumping on fresh Covid-19 fears while travel stocks are sliding.

[twodogsbarking]

8. Down nearly a thousand. See where it is end of day.

[onenote]

10. End of day is 1 pm today.

[twodogsbarking]

16. Down 900. A buying opportunity.

[cadoman]

9. but should it have been big news on the radio networks?

Swings like this aren't strange. Felt like we were up 2% for the week and just gave it back. Doesn't feel like news to me.

[onenote]

11. Your numbers are way off

The Dow peaked on November 8. Since then it has had far more”down” days than “up” days. It was down around 700 points (not up 2%) from it s peak by the end of the day Wednesday and is now around 1600 points off it’s November 8 peak.

[progree]

12. Down 2 1/2 percent in less than an hour is hardly usual /nt

[progree]

13. WTI Oil down 10%, almost down to 60's. Treasury 10 year yield down 8.1%,

France's CAC 40 down 4.3%, Germany's DAX down 3.5%, Bitcoin down 7.4%

https://finance.yahoo.com/

[oldsoftie]

19. I'd like to see Bitcoin drop another 45%

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Well, sure; that's just the Dow. What about all the other indices?

{Whoops. I see progree alluded to this over an hour ago.}

They're constantly changing, so I'm not going to attempt posting one or more.

Yahoo! Finance Major World Indices

[Scruffy1]

15. I think the market has been overpriced for a long time.

It looks a lot like several bubbles I have seen in my lifetime. The crazy prices for Tesla and Rivian are examples of a stock bubble to me. With interest rates so low money has to go somewhere. I think a market correction was on its way, anyhow, and the quick drop that a whole lot of investors know they are dealing with an overpriced market.

[iemanja]

20. Why is it always South Africa?

[IronLionZion]

22. They have the capabilities to sequence it to discover new variants quickly

there are plenty more out there in other countries that we don't know about.

[iemanja]

23. Ok, thanks.

[progree]

24. They noticed a big spike in cases and decided to look into what was causing it

I can't find the article anymore...

On Edit: but there's this:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html

South Africa: +1,230% in 14 days (recent 7 day moving average compared to 7 day moving average from 14 days earlier), and almost all of that in just 6 days judging from the little minichart.

That's a 13.3 fold increase.

[orangecrush]

21. This is bad

They have better access to what's really going on than news organizations.

Hope it doesn't crash..

[peppertree]

25. +1

So much so, that Repugs are openly celebrating on Twitter as what they see as a likely next big wave of Covid - with all the consequences that follow (economic - and of course political).

Mask up, people.

[orangecrush]

26. +1

[monkeyman1]

27. ya right , like these stupid people are going to listen !

[peppertree]

29. It's referring to those of us who do listen

But we need a statement to that effect from the CDC - and not the blunder like the CDC's 'honor system' statement in May that contributed to the Delta wave in August.

[progree]

28. Graph: Omicron variant 90% of all sequenced in S. Africa in 20 days vs. 90 days for delta

Last edited Fri Nov 26, 2021, 10:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I read the numbers off the below graph, so the title numbers se are approximate



https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/new-concerning-variant-b11529