On Thursday, the World Health Organization announced the emergence of a new variant in South Africa, which is more contagious than Delta and could invalidate the vaccine. WHO held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the impact of the new strain on vaccine and epidemic prevention. Panic spread to markets, with global stocks, crude oil and other risky assets falling on Friday, while safe-haven assets such as bonds, gold and yen rose sharply.

The European Union, Britain, Israel, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Russia took the lead in restricting air travel from southern Africa and other countries. Aviation Department stocks, aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers stocks and oil stocks fell generally. Travel and leisure stocks such as cruise ships and hotels led the European and American stock markets lower on Friday. COVID-19 vaccine stocks rose, and home economy stocks related to telecommuting, entertainment and ordering food delivery also rose against the market.

According to the latest news, the White House is considering imposing travel restrictions on several countries in southern Africa, and Biden administration officials will meet on Friday afternoon local time to discuss specific measures. World Health Organization (WHO) classified B.1.1.529 as a "mutant to be concerned about" and named it "Omicron". WHO said it would take several weeks to understand the impact of the new variant, but preliminary evidence suggests that the risk of reinfection increases.

In the panic of the new virus, the market began to price the recovery as traders postponed the Fed's first rate hike from June to September and the Bank of England from next month to February. Expectations for future rate increases by the ECB were halved.

The Dow lost more than a thousand points in intraday trading, the biggest drop this year, the S & P fell more than 100 points, the deepest since February, and vaccine and home stocks soared.

Friday, November 26, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, U. S. stocks were closed three hours earlier at 1: 00 in the East.

COVID-19 's latest mutant from South Africa frightened global markets, following the wild trend of European and Japanese stocks. Dow futures fell more than 750 points or more than 2% before trading, while futures of the S & P 500 and Nasdaq fell more than 1%. Us stocks opened significantly short and the decline expanded rapidly.

The S & P 500 opened down 69.89 points, or 1.49%, at 4631.57. The Dow Jones Industrial average opened 803.61 points lower, or 2.24%, at 35000.77. The Nasdaq composite index opened 179.70 points lower, down 1.13% at 15665.53. The "panic index" VIX, a measure of S & P's recent volatility, surged 53 per cent to above 28, a two-month high since mid-September.

The Dow fell nearly 1055 points or 3% in intraday trading, losing the 35000-point integer mark. The S & P 500 index fell more than 116 points, or 2.5%, below 4600 integer points, while the energy sector fared worst. The Nasdaq fell nearly 390 points or 2.5%. At the beginning of the session, the Nasdaq index, which is dominated by technology stocks, fell relatively small, boosted by the rebound of home-based economic stocks such as Zoom, Netflix Inc and DoorDash.

As of the close, the Dow closed down 905 points, or 2.53%, to close at 34899.34 points, the biggest one-day decline so far this year. The s & p 500 fell more than 100 points, closing 2.27% lower at 4594.62, the biggest drop since February. The Composite Index closed down nearly 354 points, or 2.23%, to close at 15491.66 points. The Russell 2000 small-cap index fell more than 4 per cent to close down 3.72 per cent.

Both the Dow and the S & P 500 recorded their worst Black Friday selling records in 70 years, according to financial blog Zerohedge.

Throughout the week, the Dow is down more than 700 points, or nearly 2%, the S & P 500 is down more than 100 points, or 2.2%, the Nasdaq is down 560 points, or 3.5%, and the Russell 2000 is down 4.1%.

Most of FAAMNG's leading technology stocks fell. Meta, Alphabet Inc-CL C's parent company Alphabet, Amazon.Com Inc and Microsoft Corp, formerly known as Facebook Inc, were all down more than 2 per cent, while Apple Inc ended nine straight gains and fell more than 3 per cent, hitting record highs for six consecutive days as of Wednesday, while Netflix Inc rose more than 1 per cent. Tesla, Inc. fell by more than 3%. Chip stocks fell, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index falling nearly 3% to its lowest level since Nov. 10, down 3.9% for the week.

Travel restrictions and concerns about economic shocks have been triggered by new variants of the virus, with global travel-related stocks being hit hardest:

Cruise stocks such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean fell at least 11 per cent, while hotel stocks such as Marriott International and Hilton fell more than 6 per cent.

Airline shares fell, with Delta and United Airlines, which plan to provide direct flights to and from South Africa next month, both down more than 8 per cent, IAG, the parent of British Airways, fell more than 15 per cent, Lufthansa's German shares fell more than 12 per cent, and France-KLM shares fell more than 9 per cent. Aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing Co of the US and Airbus of Europe fell nearly 8 per cent and 11 per cent respectively in intraday trading.

At the same time, industrial stocks closely related to the global economy fell, with leading stock Caterpillar Inc falling more than 4 per cent. Bank stocks fell on fears of a slowdown in economic activity and falling interest rates, with Bank of America Corporation, Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc all down more than 2 per cent. Energy stocks fell along with the deep fall in oil prices, with Mobil and Chevron Corp both down more than 2 per cent.

While vaccine stocks and home concept stocks rose against the market, Modena rose more than 20 per cent, close to erasing losses since early November, Pfizer Inc rose more than 6 per cent and set an all-time high, its German partner BioNTech US stocks rose more than 14 per cent and Novax rose nearly 9 per cent. Telecommuting video conferencing provider Zoom is up more than 7%, while takeout delivery company DoorDash is up more than 2% and more than 5%.

At one point, Merck & Co Inc fell more than 6% to an one-month low. The latest research data from COVID-19 's oral tablet Molnupiravir showed that the number of hospitalizations and deaths fell by 30%, significantly lower than the 50% reported in October last year, and well below that of competitor Pfizer Inc.

The rise and fall of popular Chinese stocks vary:

ETF KWEB and CQQQ are down more than 4 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively. The "new forces of car building" fell, NIO Inc. fell 3.5%, XPeng Inc. fell more than 6%, BABA fell more than 2%, JD.com and Li Auto Inc. fell sharply in late trading. Zhangmen Education closed up 5.3%, Senmiao Technology rose more than 4.2%, Dingdong (Cayman) Limited rose 2.9%, Baidu, Inc. and NetEase, Inc youdao rose more than 1%.

Pinduoduo's third-quarter revenue and the number of monthly active users fell below expectations, falling nearly 16% to the lowest since the end of May last year. E-cigarettes and other new tobacco products are implemented with reference to the relevant regulations of cigarettes. RLX Technology Inc. fell 10% before trading, fluctuated between ups and downs after the opening, and finally closed up more than 2%.

European stocks lost $560 billion in market value, the biggest drop in June last year, led by the index of the euro zone's largest economy.

Belgium has found cases of infection with the latest mutated strain in South Africa. The gloom of the new strain and the threat of an anti-epidemic blockade have damaged the economic prospects of continental Europe. European stocks have fallen deeply, and the market, industries and country indices have all fallen. Reversing the trend of most gains on Thursday, the benchmark stock indexes of Spain, France, Italy and Germany led the decline, while the tourism and leisure sectors led the decline by nearly 9%.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended two straight gains, closing down 3.67 per cent on Friday, the biggest one-day decline since June 2, 2020, down 4.5 per cent for the week and a pullback of more than 5 per cent from an all-time high earlier this month. Today, the market capitalization has lost $560 billion, which is equivalent to a year's economic output of Belgium. The national stock indexes of Germany, France and Italy, the top three eurozone economies, all fell more than 4 per cent, while Spain's IBEX index fell 5 per cent.

In addition, South Africa's main stock index fell more than 2%, the biggest drop in two months, and the South African rand fell to its lowest level in one year against the dollar. The MSCI Asia Pacific equity index fell to its lowest level since early October, while the MSCI ACWI global index fell nearly 2 per cent.

Some analysts pointed out that Friday's stock market volatility was amplified by light trading volume in the United States after Thanksgiving, but under the uncertainty caused by the latest high infectious strain, traders are preparing for greater volatility. U. S. stock valuations are too high this year, people choose to seize profit-taking.

Although there is no lack of investment professionals optimistic that selling may be a buying opportunity, chasing up and down in trading days with very low liquidity is taboo, not to mention that little is known about the latest mutants, and mRNA vaccines may be updated quickly to fight the virus, people are more worried that central banks in developed countries have no room for monetary policy in an environment of record-high inflation and volatile interest rates.

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote, pointed out that the new Covid variant may affect the economic recovery, but this time the central banks of developed countries will not have enough room to take action, they will not be able to fight inflation and promote growth at the same time, they must make the difficult choice of "protecting economic VS against inflation". Edward Smith, co-chief investment officer of Rathbone Investment Management, warned that supply chain disruptions associated with the epidemic blockade could further fuel inflation.

The price of European and American government bonds soared, and the yield on 10-year US bonds fell the most since the beginning of the epidemic last year.

Driven by high risk aversion in the market, government bond prices in major European and American countries have soared and yields have plummeted. Yields on all maturities have fallen by more than 10 basis points.

The yield on the 10-year benchmark US bond fell sharply, falling 16 basis points, not only falling below the 1.50 per cent mark, but also falling below 1.49 per cent to the lowest in more than two weeks since November 10, the biggest one-day decline since the early days of the epidemic in March last year. It closed at 1.644% before the Thanksgiving holiday and rose above 1.68% at the beginning of the week.

The yield on 30-year Treasuries fell 14.4 basis points, falling below 1.83 per cent at one point, the lowest since November 10 and standing above 1.97 per cent before the Thanksgiving holiday. Yields on two-year Treasuries, which are more sensitive to monetary policy, fell 15.6 basis points to a daily low of 0.49 per cent, basically wiping out all gains since Friday and trading at 0.64 per cent to an one-and-a-half-year high before the Thanksgiving holiday.

European government bond prices rose across the board for two days in a row, while UK yields fell for three days in a row and fell more than 14 basis points to 0.825% on Friday, the largest decline among European sovereign bonds. German and French 10-year bond yields both fell by more than 8 basis points.

Zachary Griffiths, interest rate strategist at Wells Fargo Securities, said that the weak liquidity market conditions will only exacerbate the sell-off of risky assets and the rise in safe-haven assets. It remains to be seen how much impact the new crown variant will have in the world. If another outbreak leads to more restrictive measures by governments, the expected time for the short-term interest rate market to turn to hawkish positions in the short-term interest rate market may be delayed, that is, interest rate hikes are expected to cool down again.

Oil prices fell 12%, US oil lost $70, the biggest drop since April last year, cloth oil forced $72, and EU carbon futures fell the highest.

WTI January crude oil futures closed down $10.24, or 13.06%, at $68.15 a barrel. Brent January crude oil futures closed down $9.53, or 11.58%, at $72.72 a barrel.

The main futures contract for WTI delivery in January fell nearly $11, or 14 per cent, on Friday, the biggest one-day decline since April last year, and fell below the psychological $70 integer barrier for the first time since the end of September. The daily low pushed $67, falling below the key technical level of the 200-day moving average and the lowest in two and a half months since early September.

International Brent January futures fell more than $10 or 12% for three consecutive days, not only falling below the psychological threshold of $80, but also pushing down $72, the lowest in two and a half months. Both oil prices will fall for the fifth week in a row for the first time since March last year. WTI has fallen more than $15 from a seven-year high of $85.41 hit in October, and cloth oil has also fallen sharply from a three-year high.

Analysts pointed out that at a time when the OPEC+ meets next week to discuss plans to increase production and the United States joins forces with a number of oil consuming countries around the world to release strategic oil reserves, the reduction in travel caused by the latest mutant strain and the potential anti-epidemic blockade may hit oil demand. At the same time, the oil price, as a risky asset, also runs counter to the upsurge of market risk aversion.

European natural gas fell for two consecutive days at the end of two consecutive days, falling more than 4% on Friday. ICE UK natural gas futures closed down nearly 5 per cent at 222.08 pence per kcal, but rose 1.82 per cent this week. TTF benchmark Dutch natural gas futures fell 4.8 per cent to 88.250 euros per megawatt after rising 1.79 per cent this week. The futures price of ICE EU carbon emissions trading permits fell 2.3 per cent to 72.75 euros per tonne, down from a record high set for the second day in a row on Thursday, but up 4.89 per cent this week.

The dollar index fell the most in a month, far from a 17-month high as Bitcoin fell below $54000 and entered a bear market.

The ICE dollar index (DXY), which tracks the dollar against a basket of six major currencies, fell as much as 0.8 per cent on the day, falling to 96 whole digits, giving up all its gains since Monday and further away from Wednesday's intraday rise above 96.90, the highest since July last year.

Driven by safe-haven demand, the dollar fell nearly 2% against the yen, with a daily low of 113, the lowest since November 10 or the biggest decline since March last year. The dollar fell more than 1% against the Swiss franc, the euro fell to a six-and-a-half-year low against Switzerland, and the euro hit a nine-month low against the yen.

The South African rand fell 1.7 per cent against the dollar to its lowest level in more than a year since early November. The Australian dollar and the Norwegian krona, which are closely related to risk sentiment, also accelerated their decline, with the Turkish lira falling more than 3% against the dollar. The MSCI emerging market currency index fell to a six-week low.

The cryptocurrency tumbled collectively on Friday and fell throughout the day. Bitcoin, the largest by market capitalization, fell more than $5700, falling below $54000 and 8% at one point to a seven-week low since early October, down 20% from an all-time high of nearly $69000 hit earlier this month and entering a technical bear market. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethernet Fang, also fell nearly 10% and briefly fell below the $4000 integer.

Spot gold gave up a gain of $1800 in late trading and fell throughout the week, while London's base metals fell across the board.

COMEX December gold futures closed down less than 0.1 per cent at $1785.80 an ounce, down 3.6 per cent for the week and about 7 per cent for silver futures.

Driven by safe-haven demand, spot gold rose as much as $26, or 1.5%, before midday, breaking through the $1800 integer and standing above $1815, while US stocks gave up all their gains before the close, re-trading less than $1790.

However, gold prices have fallen nearly 3 per cent this week, the worst weekly performance since Aug. 6, related to expectations that the Fed has scaled back its bond purchases (taper) and that the process of raising interest rates could accelerate, which would raise the opportunity cost of holding interest-free gold.

Platinum and palladium both fell more than 2%, with analysts saying the market was concerned that the new virus variant could hurt car consumption and demand for precious metals used in car exhaust cleaning systems.

The NDRC held intensive meetings, stressing that coal beyond reasonable prices would be regulated in time. The night trading of thermal coal, which fell by the daily limit, fell nearly 4%, the night market of coke, which fell more than 5%, fell by more than 2%, and the night trading of coking coal, which fell more than 7% during the day, fell nearly 0.5%. The night trading of iron ore, which dropped more than 6% during the day, rose more than 0.3%. In addition, most of the inner market futures closed lower in night trading, led by a drop of more than 5% in fuel and asphalt.

Amid fears of an economic recovery and renewed damage to manufacturing production, London base metals fell on Friday, while Len Copper fell for two days in a row, further away from an one-month high, closing down more than $340 to $9460 a tonne, while Len Zinc fell more than $100 to a new low this week. Lenny fell $770 to close at less than $20, 000 / tonne, while Lunxi closed down more than $1,000, or less than $39000 / tonne.