US futures down sharply and Asian stocks down due to renewed fears about the Omicron variant.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average capitulate to -555 points: futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 also fall.
The negative sentiment was rekindled by the number one of Moderna, the managing director Stephane Bancel who, interviewed by the Financial Times, said he believes that existing vaccines are less effective against the new variant of Covid. Bancel also said, in another interview with Cnbc yesterday, that it could take months to develop and distribute an ad hoc vaccine against Omicron.
Pessimism thus returns to affect global equities. In Asia, among the main stock exchanges, only Sidney is saved. The Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo stock exchange closed down by 1.63% at 27,821.76: the Shanghai stock exchange was also bad with -0.45%; the Hong Kong stock exchange fell by 2.66% after falling to intraday lows of -3%, Seoul also fell -2.6%.
Oil prices also turned negative, with WTI falling by 2.70% to $ 68.06 a barrel and Brent losing more than 3%, to then make -2.86% at $ 71.34 a barrel .
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to hear in Congress today. From the excerpts of the speech, it emerges that the number one of the American central bank will say, in particular, that “the recent increase in cases of Covid-19 and the Omicron variant represent downside risks to employment and economic activity and an increase uncertainties for inflation “.