Coinspeaker
President Joe Biden Says No More Covid Omicron Lockdowns, Markets Bounce Back

After a massive sell-off last Friday, the US stock indices bounced back sharply on Monday, November 29. The bounceback comes as President Joe Biden said that the economic lockdowns with the Omicron Covid variant are not under plans.

During a press conference on Monday, Biden said that “if people are vaccinated and wear their masks, there’s no need for lockdowns”. Biden also stressed the need for vaccine booster shots as the best way to protect themselves and others. However, Biden also stressed maintaining caution but also added that they won’t be imposing travel restrictions for now.  The US President said:

“I’ve decided we’re going to be cautious. We don’t know a lot about the variant except it is a great concern, seems to spread rapidly,”

On Monday, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP: .INX) shot up 1.32% closing at 4,655 levels. Similarly, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) also surged 1.9% or 290 points closing at 15,782 levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX: .DJI) also gained 236 points closing at 35,136 levels. 

Wall Street was on sale on Black Friday with Dow posting its worst day since October 2020. All of the three indexes corrected anywhere between 2-2.5%. Ryan Detrick of LPL Financial also cited concerns with the Omicron Covid variant spread. He noted:

“There are still more questions than answers regarding the omicron variant, but after what happened on Friday, the bounce today is a welcome sign. We’ve seen other variants cause some indigestion, but after a little bit of time things were able to calm down and move forward. We’re optimistic that will be the playbook once again.”

Tech Companies Make Swift Gains on Monday after the Announcement Related to Omicron Made by Biden

Some mega-tech companies emerged as the clear winners during Monday’s market bounceback. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock 5% closing at 1,139 levels. Similarly, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) also gained 2.11%. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) popped 2.22% while Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) also advanced 1.6%.

However, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that he would be stepping down. This led to Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWRR) stock losing 2.7%. Travel-related stocks also witnessed a bounce back. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee believes that the last week’s market pullback was a strong buying opportunity. In a note to clients on Sunday, he wrote:

“We would be aggressive buyers of this pullback. As with the case for Beta and Delta variants, the ‘bark’ has proven worse than the bite in each of those precedent instances. The market carnage, in our view, will be short-lived and transitory.”

“While it is too early to have definitive data, early reported data suggest that the Omicron virus causes ‘mild to moderate’ symptoms (less severity) and is more transmissible. If this turns out to be true, this is bullish not bearish for markets,” added Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management.

next

President Joe Biden Says No More Covid Omicron Lockdowns, Markets Bounce Back