Equities New York: Omikron largely wipes out recovery gains

NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – After a sharp setback on Tuesday, the US stock exchanges started another recovery attempt in the middle of the week. However, the profits crumbled noticeably in the course of trading. Concerns about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus were once again widespread. News made the rounds that the confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa have almost doubled since Tuesday and that a first omicron case has now also appeared in the USA. The first cases of this virus variant have now also been detected in Great Britain, Switzerland, Norway and Brazil.

Omicron is currently classified as a concern because of its rapid spread and numerous mutations. However, it is not yet possible to estimate how sick the virus actually causes due to a lack of sufficient data and because so far mainly young people have been infected.

The Dow Jones Industrial gave up most of its early gains and was only up 0.12 percent at 34,526.35 points around two hours before the close of trading. The market-wide S&P 500 advanced by 0.47 percent to 4588.65 points. On the Nasdaq, the 100 selection index rose 0.32 percent to 16,187.80 points.

On the data side, the main focus was on US industrial sentiment, which did not improve quite as much as expected in November.

Among the individual values ​​on the US stock exchanges, securities from vaccine manufacturers such as Biontech, Moderna and Novavax gave up further parts of their recent gains and were down 2.3 to 7.7 percent.

Merck & Co shares rose 1.0 percent after an advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended emergency use approval for a corona drug from the pharmaceutical manufacturer. Although the recommendation is not binding for the FDA, the authority usually follows the assessment of the consultants.

A muted outlook sent shares in software maker Salesforce down 9.2 percent, trailing the Dow. However, business in the past quarter went better than expected.

The situation was similar at the information technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which had also initially disappointed with its outlook. But here the mood turned in trading. After initial losses, the papers recently increased by 0.9 percent. Among other things, the market pointed to strong order intake and a solid cash inflow./ck/mis

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