US stocks closed lower on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 suffering their biggest one-day percentage drops in months, and pandemic-hit sectors that had gained from a reopening falling sharply after a new SARS-CoV-2 mutation was found.
Authorities worldwide reacted with alarm on Friday to the variant found in South Africa, since named Omicron, with the EU and UK among those tightening border controls as researchers sought to establish if it was vaccine-resistant.
Cruise operators Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings each plunged more than 10 percent, while shares in United Airlines Holdings Inc, Delta Air Lines Inc and American Airlines Group Inc also tumbled.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca Airline Index fell 6.45 percent in its biggest one-day percentage decline since September last year.
Retailers dropped 2.04 percent as Black Friday started the holiday shopping season with worries that the new variant would depress store traffic and curb supply.
Selling was broad, with big declines of more than 1 percent in all 11 major S&P sectors except healthcare, which fell just 0.45 percent thanks to COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer Inc rising 6.11 percent to close at a record high of US$54 and Moderna Inc jumping 20.57 percent.
“It is deja vu all over again for like the eighth time,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Global Investments in Atlanta.
“What we understand about this variant could accelerate over the weekend, if there is more concerning news than good news, a lot of people don’t want to be holding risk assets on Monday morning, or are afraid of what that could look like Monday morning,” he said.
Despite the sell-off, market participants said the drop was likely exaggerated by the thin volume during the shortened post-Thanksgiving holiday session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 905.04 points, or 2.53 percent, to 34,899.34; the S&P 500 lost 106.84 points, or 2.27 percent, to 4,594.62; and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 353.57 points, or 2.23 percent, to 15,491.66.
For the week, the Dow fell 1.97 percent, the S&P 500 lost 2.2 percent and the NASDAQ Composite slumped 3.52 percent.
The domestically focused Russell 2000 small-cap index fell 3.67 percent on Friday. Both the S&P 500 and small cap Russell index posted their biggest one-day percentage drops since Feb. 25.
The S&P 500 banks index dropped 3.87 percent as investors dialed back expectations of faster US interest rate hikes. Energy, this year’s best performing sector, dropped 4 percent on the day, its biggest decline in more than eight months, as crude prices plunged US$10 a barrel.
Elevated US inflation, coupled with strong economic data and the renomination of Jerome Powell as US Federal Reserve chair by US President Joe Biden, had fueled expectations the central bank might hike interest rates sooner than expected.
The CBOE volatility index, popularly known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, hit its highest level since early March.
Stocks such as Netflix Inc, Peloton Interactive Inc and Zoom Video Communications Inc, known as “stay-at-home” names, all scored solid advances.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 5.84-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 3.96-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and 23 new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 18 new highs and 334 new lows.
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Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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