U.S. futures rise, oil up as traders weigh omicron
U.S. equity futures and crude oil rose Monday as traders weighed the possible impact of the omicron coronavirus strain on global economic reopening. Currency markets stabilized after Friday's volatility.
Equity futures for Japan advanced, while Australian shares slid at the open and oil jumped back above $70 a barrel. The $S&P 500 Index(.SPX.US)$ last week had its worst post-Thanksgiving performance since 1941 and the yield on 10-year Treasuries slid the most since March 2020.
El Salvador 'bought the dip,' acquiring 100 more bitcoin
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said the Central American country had taken advantage the 7.7% decline in Bitcoin on Friday to purchase 100 more of the coins.
Dollar bonds from El Salvador are among the worst-performing in emerging markets so far this month, lagging only defaulted Lebanese debt, according to data compiled from a Bloomberg index.
Online travel stocks fall most since March 2020 on variant fears
Shares of online travel companies, including $Booking Holdings(BKNG.US)$ and $Expedia(EXPE.US)$, fell the most since the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic over worries about a new, heavily-mutated variant of the virus.
Expedia plummeted as much as 11.9%, the most since March 2020, placing it among the 10-worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 Friday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Booking fell as much as 9.6%.
Moderna says an omicron variant vaccine could be ready in early 2022
$Moderna(MRNA.US)$'s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said Sunday the vaccine maker could roll out a reformulated vaccine against the omicron coronavirus variant early next year. It's not clear whether new formulations will be needed, or if current Covid vaccinations will provide protection against the new variant that has begun to pop up around the globe.
Omicron was classified as a "variant of concern" by the WHO last week.
Black Friday shopping in stores drops 28% from pre-pandemic levels as shoppers spread spending throughout the season
Traffic at retail stores on Black Friday dropped 28.3% compared with 2019 levels, according to preliminary data from Sensormatic Solutions. Traffic was up 47.5% compared with year-ago levels, Sensormatic said.
"It's clear shoppers are shopping earlier this season, just as they did last season," said Brian Field, senior director of global retail consulting at Sensormatic. Online, retailers rang up $8.9 billion in sales on Black Friday, down from the record of about $9 billion spent on the Friday after Thanksgiving a year earlier, according to data from Adobe Analytics.
Shoppers are buying from resale retailers more than ever
The resale market is booming, and by 2023 is expected to reach $51 billion. That has been fueled by shifting consumer demands, from shopping in more sustainable ways as well as trying to secure hard-to-find luxury items.
Resale platforms like The RealReal and $ThredUp(TDUP.US)$ have benefited, and other traditional retailers like $Macy's(M.US)$ and J.C. Penney are finding their own ways in.
Black Friday rout shows dangers of margin borrowing
Friday's global retreat from riskier assets exposes a vulnerability of the broad market advance of the past year and a half: the rising use of leverage, or borrowed money.
Margin borrowings in October were up 42% from a year earlier to $935.9 billion, according to data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Wall Street’s self-regulator. Meanwhile a measure of cash holdings among individual investors fell to 46% of margin balances, Mr. Goepfert said, the lowest reading in data going back to 1997.
Hertz-Tesla deal signals broad shift to EVs for rental-car companies
The rental-car industry, long a big bulk-purchaser of new models in the car business, is sharpening efforts to add , the latest in a broader global shift among companies embracing greener technologies to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions.
Two of the biggest car-rental firms— $Hertz Global(HTZ.US)$ and $Avis Budget(CAR.US)$—recently revealed plans to expand their plug-in offerings as the auto industry rolls out more options for drivers looking to avoid gasoline.
Source: Bloomberg, WSJ, CNBC