FTSE 100, Wall Street and oil rally despite worries over Omicron

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are both higher by more than 1% with many US traders returning to the markets after the Thanksgiving holiday when light volumes on Friday exacerbated the selling pressure. The Dow is in the green for the first session in four while the Dow and S&P 500 are on track for their best day in over six weeks.

As the world scrambles to digest the threat of Omicron, the sense is that Friday’s panic selling was overdone with many traders using this as an opportunity to buy the dip. Investors have responded well to the speedy imposition of travel restrictions by governments over the weekend and to the mild-to-moderate symptom displays of Omicron patients so far.

However, the fallout for markets and the economy depends on a series of unknowns including the transmissibility of the variant, its resistance to the vaccine and the severity of symptoms.

Shares in Moderna have opened up by more than 7%, extending gains after rallying over 20% in Friday’s session after its chief medical officer said a reformulated vaccine could be ready by early next year. The company is fully focused on the task at hand, already testing three vaccine boosters against the variant and announcing a new variant-specific vaccine candidate against Omicron.

Investors are positively surprised by the speed at which the biotech company has already got to work on the new variant with the response time allowing the share price to restore its upward trendline after a 3-month decline. Although the stock has given back nearly 30% of its gains since the August peak, Moderna shares are still enjoying a 245% gain year-to-date.