Worries about a new strain of the virus, named Omicron and classified by the World Health Organisation as a variant of concern, slammed markets worldwide and dealt the S&P 500 index its biggest one-day percentage loss in nine months. The moves came a day after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday when thin volume likely exacerbated the moves. read more
"Markets were celebrating the end of the pandemic. Slam. It isn't over," said David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors."All policy issues, meaning monetary policy, business trajectories, GDP growth estimates, leisure and hospitality recovery, the list goes on, are on hold."
On Friday, however, technology and growth stocks that had prospered during last year's so-called stay-at-home trade soared, including Zoom Communications , Netflix Inc and Peloton . Friday's swings also sent the Cboe Volatility Index , known as Wall Street's fear gauge, soaring and options investors scrambling to hedge their portfolios against further market swings.Andrew Thrasher, portfolio manager for The Financial Enhancement Group, had been concerned that recent gains in a handful of technology stocks with large weightings in the S&P 500, including Apple Inc , Amazon.com Inc , Microsoft Corp , were masking weakness in the broader market.
"We've had numerous days when economic optimism collapses. Each of these optimism collapses were a good buying opportunity," wrote Bill Smead, founder of Smead Capital Management, in a note to investors. Among the stocks he recommended were Occidental Petroleum and Macerich Co , down 7.2% and 5.2% respectively on Friday.
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