U.S. stocks dropped sharply on Friday as a new Covid variant found in South Africa triggered a global shift away from risk assets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 905.04 points, or 2.53%, for its worst day of the year, closing at 34,899.34. The S&P 500 lost 2.27% to close at 4,594.62, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.23% to finish at 15,491.66. The Dow was down more than 1,000 points at session lows.
The downward moves came after World Health Organization officials on Thursday warned of a new Covid-19 variant that’s been detected in South Africa. The new variant contains more mutations to the spike protein, the component of the virus that binds to cells, than the highly contagious delta variant. Because of these mutations, scientists fear it could have increased resistance to vaccines, though WHO said further investigation is needed. On Friday, the WHO deemed the new strain a variant of concern and named it omicron.
Bitcoin as one point traded as low as $53,549, its lowest level since early October.
The cryptocurrency is down 20% from an all-time high of nearly $69,000 which it hit earlier this month.
Bear markets are typically defined by a decline of 20% or more from recent highs.
BTC also panic selling???
BTC is supposed to be future proof?
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Uncle8888,
ReplyDeleteFuture proof doesn't mean volatility proof LOL!
I think for cryptos, a -40% drop is needed to qualify as bear market.
Different assets have their natural volatility variances.
Similarly, for property, just a -10% drop in median prices will be considered a major bear market liao.
For the main US indices, I doubt this event will lead to even a -10% drop.
Ok for small buys to relief itchy fingers, but not enough to use more significant % of warchest.
But we'll see. ;)
The huge protein spike around T cells is what scientists are worried about.
ReplyDelete