NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – Ironically, on “Black Friday” there is also a pitch-black Friday on Wall Street. The fear of a new variant of the coronavirus, which had already weighed heavily on the stock exchanges in Asia and Europe, led to a wave of sales in early trading, including US stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial fell towards the end of the first hour of trading by 2.58 percent to 34,880.78 points. The day after “Thanksgiving”, trading in New York ends three hours earlier than usual.
The market-wide S&P 500 
also lost 1.99 percent to 4607.95 meters. On the Nasdaq, technology stocks, some of which are viewed by investors as possible beneficiaries of an extended corona crisis, came under less pressure. The Nasdaq 100 selection index could not escape the downward vortex with a discount of 1.29 percent to 16,156.18 points.
Craig Erlam of broker Oanda observed an “escape to safety in the face of mounting fear of variants”. Experts fear that variant B.1.1.529, discovered in southern Africa, is not only highly contagious due to an unusually large number of mutations, but could also penetrate the protective shield of the vaccines more easily. This makes investors’ lockdown worries, which recently arose because of the renewed wave of infections, boil up even further.
“The most worrying thing about the new tribe right now is how little we know about them,” continued Erlam. The PA news agency quoted an expert from the UK Healthcare Safety Authority as saying that B.1.1.529 was “the worst variant” seen so far. So far there have been few confirmed cases outside of southern Africa, including one in Belgium.
Following the entry restrictions imposed by Britain and Israel on people from southern Africa, other countries announced similar measures. This is another major blow for the entire travel industry, which was also felt on the stock exchange: From airlines to cruise providers to travel portals, there was a slump in prices: the shares of United Airlines, Carnival and Booking Holdings lost between 8.7 and 11 , 3 percent. The aircraft manufacturer Boeing was one of the biggest losers in the Dow with minus 7.5 percent.
There was also a steep decline among transport service providers for concerns about a decline in travel activity, as shown by losses of 7.9 and 5.9 percent at Lyft and Uber, respectively. The industry was also at the center of speculation about a possible withdrawal of competitor Didi from the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares, listed in New York, fell by 6.7 percent in a similar size range as those of the two competitors.
The uncertainty due to the corona fears was also noticeable on the oil market, as the collapsing oil prices show. The shares of the industry giants Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips sagged in the wake of this between 3.8 and 7.0 percent. During the first corona wave in spring 2020, oil prices had already plummeted due to the closure of many areas of economic life.
But there were also winners of the current development – and these included some of the well-known “stay-at-home stocks” that were coveted during previous lockdowns, but had a difficult time with investors in recent months during the more relaxed infection situation. Above all, the papers of the video conference provider Zoom attracted 7.8 percent. The titles of the fitness specialist Peloton recovered by 4.4 percent and the shares of the streaming provider Netflix rose by 0.7 percent.
Vaccine manufacturers also benefited from the new situation: The Biontech shares listed in New York shot up by 18.5 percent, while the Pfizer stocks rose by 6.9 percent. While the worldwide “booster” vaccinations are already keeping the demand for the vaccine high, the renewed fears of investors supported here too. In addition, the vaccine has been approved in Europe for children aged five and over.
While the papers of the Biontech competitor Moderna even rose by 23 percent, there was also an outlier in the vaccine universe with negative news. The shares of the gene therapy specialist Ocugen lost 5.4 percent after the US drug authority FDA had issued a so-called “clinical hold” for the tests of the Covid vaccine candidate Covaxin, which was developed with the Indian partner Bharat Biotech. The FDA takes this step, among other things, if it sees a risk to test subjects. Ocugen will now have to wait for further information from the FDA.
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