WALL Street stocks closed higher on Monday, regaining some of the ground they lost in Friday’s sell-off as investors were hopeful that the Omicron coronavirus variant would not lead to lockdowns after reassurance from US President Joe Biden.
The Nasdaq led gains among the major averages with help from the technology sector while the S&P and the Dow advanced after suffering their biggest one-day percentage declines in months in Friday’s holiday-shortened session as investors worried that the latest COVID-19 variant would cause economic disruption.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 236.6 points or 0.68% to 35,135.94, the S&P 500 gained 60.65 points or 1.32% to 4,655.27 and the Nasdaq Composite added 291.18 points or 1.88% to 15,782.83.
Biden said on Monday that Omicron-related lockdowns were off the table for now and urged Americans not to panic about the variant.
However, he did recommend vaccination and mask wearing indoors to combat the virus and said the US was working with pharmaceutical companies to make contingency plans if new vaccines were needed.
Those comments and indications from drug companies that they are taking the variant seriously were reassuring for investors who had been anxious about the potential for further COVID restrictions.
“Friday was a major de-risking event. You had the market go back to its worst fears of COVID spreading and the return of lockdowns,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.
“Now you’re starting to see there is some optimism when you listen to the President, when you listen to the Pfizer CEO. The Omicron panic is easing, and we’re into a period of wait and see.”
Vaccine makers such as Pfizer, its partner BioNTech and their rivals Moderna and Johnson & Johnson said Monday they are working on vaccines that specifically target Omicron in case existing shots are not effective against the variant.
Britain said it would offer a COVID-19 booster vaccine to all adults and give second doses to children aged between 12 and 15, in light of concern about the spread of the Omicron variant. It also said Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were the preferred boosters.
Among the S&P’s 11 major sectors, technology was the leading percentage gainer, up 2.6%, followed by the consumer discretionary sector which closed up 1.6% with boosts from Amazon.com and Tesla Inc.
Other big boosts from single stocks in the S&P came from Microsoft and Apple Inc which gained ground after HSBC raised its price target for the iPhone maker.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.31-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.35-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and 21 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and 344 new lows.
On US exchanges, 11.13 billion shares changed hands on Monday compared with the 10.84 billion average for the last 20 sessions. – Nov 30, 2021
