(New York) The New York Stock Exchange closed sharply on Friday, unsettled by the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus, which caused the Dow Jones’ biggest fall this year.
The flagship Wall Street index dropped 2.53%, much more than in the previous record of 2021 (-2.09%), which dated from July, to finish at 34,899.34 points.
The NASDAQ index fell 2.23% to 15,491.66 points and the extended S&P 500 index by 2.27% to 4,594.62 points.
B.1.1529, the whole market had only these barbaric initials on their mouths on Friday, those of the new variant of the coronavirus, first identified in South Africa.
Considered to be very contagious, it was classified as “worrying” by the World Health Organization (WHO) which baptized it, Friday, Omicron.
“The market had only one idea in mind today,” commented Ross Mayfield, analyst at Baird.
“There is reason to believe that it is more contagious and more problematic than Delta was,” he added, of the variant. “So the market’s reaction to the current level of uncertainty makes sense, especially given that we were close to record highs” for indices.
Far from being limited to the equity markets, the tension has also spread to the bond market.
The average rate on 10-year US government bonds rose sharply, wiping out 16 basis points (0.16 percentage point) in 24 hours, which is considerable over such a short period.
It stood at 1.48%, compared to 1.64% Wednesday night (the market was closed Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday).
Ordinarily, the Thanksgiving Friday session, sandwiched between the most important holiday of the year in the United States and a weekend, is one of the quietest of the year, with starving volumes.
But the eruption of the variant on Friday brought volumes to a level above half of the sessions in November.
In time-lapse, Wall Street has replayed a well-known refrain since this pandemic rocked the planet 18 months ago.
Everything that touches, directly or indirectly, tourism, leisure outside the home, has been lynched by investors.
Unsurprisingly, American airlines have loosened in the face of this new variant threatening to penalize global air transport.
American Airlines (-8.79%), Delta Air Lines (-8.34%) or United Airlines (-9.57%) have sunk far into the red.
Still in the tourism department, even worse was the fall for cruise lines Norwegian (-11.36%), Carnival (-10.96%) and Royal Caribbean (-13.22%).
Even Disney (-2.13% to 148.11 dollars), exposed with its amusement parks, was not spared.
Threatened by a possible slowdown in activity, and therefore in credit, but also by a possible postponement of interest rate hikes to spare the economy, bank stocks have also suffered.
Bank of America lost 3.93%, JPMorgan Chase, 3.01%, and Wells Fargo, 5.61%.
In the wake of the oil price slippage, Exxon Mobil (-3.51%) or ConocoPhillips (-4.48%) were also punished.
Conversely, the manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines Moderna (+ 20.57%), Pfizer (+ 6.11%) or Novavax (+ 8.95%) were ready for take-off.
The same goes for the revelations of the pandemic thanks to confinements and teleworking, the Zoom video conference platform (+ 5.72%) and the specialist in connected bikes Peloton (+ 5.67%).
On this day of high mass in retail, the now famous “Black Friday”, several distribution giants were penalized.
Already bombed in recent days, the department store chains Macy’s (-5.16%) or the clothing chain Gap (-2.86%), because less well positioned than their competitors.
Boeing plunged (-5.41% to $ 199.21) after Canadian authorities notified the US aircraft manufacturer that its bid to renew Canadian military fighter jets did not meet specifications, according to several North American media.