NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Ironically on the bargain day “Black Friday” there was also a sale on Wall Street on Friday. Fear of a new coronavirus variant caused the Dow Jones Industrial to drop by almost three percent to its lowest level in six weeks. With 34 899.34 points, the price barometer was only able to reduce its losses slightly to 2.53 percent at the early close of trading. The weekly balance was still negative with a two percent drop. The day after Thanksgiving, trading ended three hours earlier than usual.
The market-wide S&P 500 lost 2.27 percent to 4594.62 meters. On the Nasdaq, technology stocks did not come under much less pressure either. The selection index Nasdaq 100 could not escape the downward spiral with a discount of 2.09 percent to 16 025.58 points.
Craig Erlam of broker Oanda observed an “escape to safety in the face of mounting fear of variants”. Experts fear that variant B.1.1.529, discovered in southern Africa, is not only highly contagious due to an unusually large number of mutations, but could also penetrate the protective shield of the vaccines more easily. This raised lockdown worries among investors. “The most worrying thing about the new tribe right now is how little we know about them,” continued Erlam.
Various countries announced entry restrictions for people from South Africa. This is another heavy blow for the entire travel industry, which was also felt on the stock exchange. From airlines to cruise providers to travel portals, there was a slump in prices: The shares of United Airlines, Carnival and Booking Holdings, for example, lost between 7.2 and 11 percent. The aircraft manufacturer Boeing was one of the biggest losers in the Dow with minus 5.4 percent.
There was also a steep decline among the transport service providers for fear of a decline in travel activity, as shown by losses of up to 4.8 percent at Lyft or Uber. The industry was also at the center of speculation about a possible withdrawal of competitor Didi from the New York Stock Exchange. The share certificates listed there fell by 2.8 percent, but less than those of the two competitors.
The uncertainty due to the corona fears was also noticeable on the oil market, as the collapsing oil prices show. The shares of the industry giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips sagged in the wake of this by 2.3 to 4.5 percent. During the first corona wave in spring 2020, oil prices had already fallen drastically due to the closure of many areas of economic life.
But there were also winners of the current development – and these included some of the well-known “stay-at-home stocks” that were coveted during previous lockdowns, but had a difficult time with investors in recent months during the more relaxed infection situation. The papers of the video conference provider Zoom and the fitness specialist Peloton were particularly noticeable here, with price gains of 5.7 percent each.
Vaccine manufacturers also benefited from the new situation: The Biontech shares listed in New York shot up a good 14 percent, while Pfizer stocks rose 6.1 percent. While the worldwide “booster” vaccinations are already keeping the demand for the vaccine high, the renewed fears of investors supported here too.
While the papers of the Biontech competitor Moderna even rose by almost 21 percent, there was also an outlier in the vaccine universe with negative news. The shares of the gene therapy specialist Ocugen lost 9.2 percent after the US drug authority FDA issued a so-called “clinical hold” for the tests of the Covid vaccine candidate Covaxin. The FDA takes this step, among other things, if it sees a risk to test subjects.
The euro gained. With a last $ 1.1311 paid, it returned above the $ 1.13 mark. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at 1.1291 (Thursday: 1.1223) dollars. The dollar cost 0.8856 (0.8910) euros.
US Treasury bond prices benefited significantly from investors’ risk aversion. The futures contract for ten-year Treasuries rose 1.07 percent to 131.22 points. In return, the yield on ten-year government bonds fell to 1.48 percent./tih/he
By Timo Hausdorf, dpa-AFX
Source: dpa-AFX
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