Authorities around the world reacted with alarm on Friday to the variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa, which is being studied if it is resistant to vaccines in use. The European Union and Great Britain were some of the territories that reinforced border controls.
Cruise operators Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line each plunged more than 10%, while shares of United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines also fell. The NYSE Arca Airline Index experienced its biggest one-day percentage decline in more than a year.
Retailers fell at the start of Black Friday, the start of the holiday shopping season, as the new variant fueled concerns about low store traffic and inventory problems.
The declines were wide, with large declines in all 11 major S&P sectors except health, which was down slightly thanks to strong earnings from Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc.
“It’s déjà vu again, like for the eighth time,” said Keith Buchanan, Senior Portfolio Manager at Global Investments, adding: “Our understanding of this variant could accelerate over the weekend, if there is more worrying news than good news, a lot of people don’t want to have risk assets on Monday morning.”.
Despite the sales, traders in the market pointed out that the drop was likely exaggerated by the low volume during the short holiday session after Thanksgiving.
Sharp fall in the main European indices
The European stock markets collapsed this Friday, dragged by the fear of a great paralysis of the global economy linked to the new variant of covid-19.
The FTSE 100 index of the London Stock Exchange closed down 3.6% (7,044.03 points). Paris and Frankfurt also closed in red. The CAC 40 of the Parisian stock market lost 4.8% to 6,739.73 points and the Frankfurt Dax index closed at 15,257.69 units (-4.2%). The Madrid Stock Exchange closed at 8,402.70 points, with a fall of 4.96%.
Source From: Ambito
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