By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Shares that were benefiting from the reopening of the economy were off their Friday’s close as fears over the omicron variant grip the market.
Stocks like Carnival (NYSE:CCL), Uber (NYSE:UBER), American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) and AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) were all down 3%-4% in premarket as the world grapples with a resurgent virus, spreading fast across Europe and parts of America.
Many of those companies -- present in industries like leisure, travel, transportation and entertainment -- bore the brunt of the severe restrictions governments imposed on businesses and movement of the people after the first outbreak last year. The new threat comes just when their outlook was brightening and they were hoping to profit from nearly two years of pentup demand.
"Omicron ... remains one of the biggest issues for markets right now and has significantly clouded the outlook moving into year-end," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note.
S&P and Nasdaq futures while European and UK stocks hit two-week lows Monday, dropping 1.9% and 1.8% respectively. U.S. crude hovered closed to $68.30 per barrel-levels.
Omicron, found in more than 80 countries, is now dominating the delta in many of those. Delta ravaged countries around the world this year, and is responsible for the bulk of over 5.4 million deaths from the disease worldwide
While much more infectious than previous strains of the virus, omicron hasn’t yet resulted in increased hospitalizations. At the same time, the surging number of cases has put health authorities on alert. Some European countries are already back to restrictions imposed after the first outbreak last year.