Tuesday's Market Minute: Omicron Sweeps Nation Ahead Of The Holidays

Amid record-high inflation, heightened volatility, and the rapidly surging COVID-19 case counts, the question of whether we are due for another market correction is at the forefront of many investors’ minds.

After sizable selling in Monday’s session, the major averages rebounded on Tuesday, adding to the continued uncertainty and lack of direction the market seems to be facing. Plus, fear has resurged into everyday lives around the world, with the omicron variant now being the dominant COVID strain in the U.S., representing 73% of sequenced cases per the CDC. Omicron has dominated the preceding delta variant, which is now estimated to total around 27% of sequenced cases. Just a week prior, delta made up 87% of cases to omicron’s 12.6%. In some parts of the country, the omicron cases are even more than the 73% average.

The CDC is now estimating it accounts for more than 90% of cases in cities throughout the Northwest, South, Southwest, and Northeast – with New York grabbing nationwide attention, as the city reported the most one-day cases ever. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that the city was dealing with a surge of omicron cases, with the average daily case count more than doubling over the last week, but he expects the wave to reach a peak in just a few weeks.

New York’s seven-day average is now over 7,200 cases a day, a near-130% spike from the week prior. However, hospitalizations remain much lower than the last surge. De Blasio said that those infected with omicron in New York are experiencing only mild symptoms, although he admitted there remains a lot unknown regarding the new variant. Even if omicron cases have been milder this far, it appears to be highly transmissible – which experts have warned could still lead to a spike in hospitalizations. Dr. Anthony Fauci has said the country is in a much better place than we were a year ago, but we still have areas for vast improvement. Fauci said the real question is, are there many with residual post-infection immunity – not protected from getting infected, but protected from getting a severe disease?

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