NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The US stock exchanges started to recover on Monday after heavy losses before the weekend. Investors’ fears about the Omikron coronavirus variant evaporated somewhat. “News from South Africa that the course of the disease with the Omikron variant is quite mild, as well as the relatively short time it takes to adapt mRNA vaccines to new virus variants, speak against a sustained escalation in the markets,” commented the Dekabank experts.
The Dow Jones Industrial won on Wall Street around two hours before the close of trading, 0.94 percent to 35,226.87 points, after having temporarily given up all of his early gains.
The market-wide S&P 500 
last rose 1.62 percent to 4669.23 points, and the selection index on the Nasdaq moved up to 100 by 2.43 percent to 16,414.60 points. On Friday, both the Dow and the tech stocks index plummeted by more than two percent in shortened trading after the first reports about Omikron had made the rounds.
In a comment, market analyst Jochen Stanzl from CMC Markets pointed out that the reports on Omikron gave rise to new hopes that the US Federal Reserve could give in and reconsider the “tapering course” it recently embarked on – that is, the reduction in bond purchases. “Monetary policy is likely to give way if the new virus mutation poses a threat to the ongoing economic recovery and could prolong the pandemic,” wrote Stanzl.
Cautious investor optimism was also bolstered by news from the vaccine maker industry. The biotech company Moderna announced on Sunday that it could produce a large-scale vaccine specially tailored for Omikron early next year. The Mainz competitor Biontech also announced that in addition to ongoing laboratory tests to examine the new variant, it was also working on the development of an adapted vaccine – as a preventative measure in the event that it might become necessary.
Accordingly, Moderna shares continued their recovery rally. After a plus of more than 20 percent on Friday, they gained a further 11 percent and were thus the top value in the Nasdaq 100. The Biontech shares listed in New York gained another 4.2 percent after their most recent 14 percent increase to. However, both titles still have a long way to go to their record highs in August.
There was also relief among owners of oil stocks: After the weak end of the week, Chevron and ExxonMobil were each 1.4 percent more expensive, following the recovery in oil prices. ConocoPhillips gained 2.1 percent. Commodities expert Daniel Hynes of the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group had described the recent drop in prices for these stocks as a “complete overreaction” of the market.
On the other hand, things continued to look bleak for stocks from the travel and leisure industry: the stocks of American Airlines and Delta failed to recover and stood on the spot. Southwest Airlines lost another 0.7 percent. Only United Airlines recovered somewhat, up 1.0 percent.
The share of Twitter initially made a price jump of 11 percent at times, until it finally fell by 1.2 percent. The trigger was media reports about a change at the top of the short message service. Twitter later confirmed this, but the fact that the previous chief technology officer Parag Agrawal took over the office was not so well received by investors.
Analyst Susannah Streeter from the British asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown justified: Investors were so dissatisfied with Dorsey’s “part-time role” as CEO that the price jump was understandable, she wrote. The fact that Agrawal was now taking over the helm was probably not convincing. Investors would have hoped for a breath of fresh air from an external candidate.
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