Tag Archives: Omicron

Today started with big news from Lenovo, followed by Waymo and Intel. Now it seems that Google is extracting itself entirely from its in-person presence at CES. A spokesperson for the company tells TechCrunch: After careful consideration we have decided to withhold from having a presence on the show floor of CES 2022. We’ve been closely monitoring the development of the Omicron variant, and have decided that this is the best choice for the health and safety of our teams. We will… Source link

Just as the hospitality sector was starting to recover from the Delta wave of COVID-19, a growing number of local restaurants and bars are bracing themselves for the Omicron variant, which is swamping highly-vaccinated population centers and threatening public gatherings. With Christmas and New Year’s approaching, closed doors, canceled reservations and sparser dining rooms are once again the order of the day for eateries battered by COVID-19 restrictions over the last two years. “We’re… Source link

Contracts on the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq were sideways heading into overnight trading on Wednesday, building on back-to-back sessions of gains as fears the Omicron variant would derail economic growth cooled among investors who sold-off risky assets at the start of the week on reports of swelling case numbers. Futures on all three major indexes were in the green Wednesday evening. The moves follow positive economic data that curbed worries of Omicron’s impact on the economy and inflation… Source link

The fast-spreading Omicron variant isn’t shaking the confidence (yet) on Goldman Sachs’ call for double-digit percentage returns for the S&P 500 next year.  Goldman’s chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin reiterated Monday an S&P 500 target by the end of 2022 of 5,100. The figure marks a potential 12% increase in stock prices as measured from the S&P 500’s current level.  “We expect that these gains will be driven primarily by earnings per share growth of 8% combined with a stable P/E… Source link

(Bloomberg) — Monday’s Asia trading session took on a decisively risk-off tone: U.S. stock index futures fell, Treasuries gained and risk-sensitive currencies slid as investors fretted over fresh lockdowns to slow the new variant. Most Read from Bloomberg Senator Joe Manchin’s rejection of the U.S. spending package at the heart of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda heaped fresh fuel to the fire with market liquidity starting to thin as Christmas nears. “Markets this week and next… Source link

While traders are making bank chasing Apple to a $3 trillion market cap, many in the market are adding cash to their accounts amid heightened concerns around the Omicron variant and a more hawkish Federal Reserve. Bank of America’s monthly fund manager survey out Tuesday found cash allocation among investors surged 14 percentage points in December from November. Fund managers were net 36% overweight cash, the highest allocation to the asset class since May 2020. Besides cash, investors also… Source link

Stock futures opened relatively flat on Wednesday evening, though sustaining gains posted by a three-day recovery rally that was led by cooled investor concerns around the Omicron variant. Dow futures inched up 0.02%, while contracts on the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.10%. All major indexes closed up, with the S&P 500 gaining 14.46 points to close the session at 4,701.21, just 0.5% shy of the trading session on Nov. 24, a day before the latest COVID-19 variant was announced by… Source link

For companies whose employees are still toiling from their couches at home, the question of when to bring their full workforces back to the office has become even trickier. In a pandemic when many decisions have hinged on risk tolerance, the coronavirus’s new omicron variant has complicated the process of calculating those hazards. Major corporations that had planned to shepherd all their employees back into offices in early 2022 now have to decide whether those dates make sense in light of… Source link

Stocks rose on Monday, with investors further weighing the potential impacts of the Omicron variant after last week’s volatile trading. Bitcoin prices edged marginally lower after a weekend sell-off. The S&P 500 and Dow each gained, while the Nasdaq was slightly lower. Small-cap stocks outperformed, and the Russell 2000 added about 1%.  Some encouraging developments about the latest coronavirus variant helped boost risk assets. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy… Source link

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe Monday, December 6, 2021 Most investors will enter this week confused after battling through another topsy-turvy trading week.  Bitcoin nosedived at its worst by 20% over the weekend (more on that below). Last week, the S&P 500 saw five straight losses of at least 1% at one point each day, according to Bloomberg data. Small-cap stocks as measured… Source link