Dow Tumbles 900 Points As Fears Over New COVID-19 Variant Grip Global Markets
(CNN) -- Wall Street is in a frenzy on Black Friday as stocks around the world tumbled in the face of a new Covid-19 variant. US equities took a dive at the open and continued their downward path in the first half hour of trading, with the Dow more some 900 points lower. Oil prices were also badly hit.
The new variant has been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel, prompting some countries to put flight bans in place.
Over the summer, the Delta variant spooked consumers and weighed on sectors like leisure and hospitality. Now investors and economists worry this new variant could do the same.
Wall Street was deep in the red early Friday, with the Dow falling 2.5%, or about 900 points, in what is shaping up to be a volatile session. The broader S&P 500 tumbled 1.8% and the Nasdaq Composite opened down 1.3%.
It's a shortened trading session as the New York Stock Exchange will close at 1 pm ET after being closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. Reduced trading volume during this half-day session is also likely to exacerbate the swings in the market.
Nevertheless, it could shape up to be one of the worst days of the year for stocks.
But it's not just stocks that are getting a beating.
Oil prices are tumbling as well. US oil futures fell 7.4%, or nearly $6, to $72.51 per barrel around the time of the stock market open. The global benchmark Brent dropped 6.8% to $76.63 per barrel.
The US dollar, measured by the ICE US Dollar Index, which pegs it against its main rivals, was down 0.6% Friday morning.
Cryptocurrencies also felt the heat, dropping across the board. Bitcoin was down nearly 7% around the time of the stock market open, according to CoinDesk data.
Meanwhile, investors are pushing into safe haven investments. The 10-year US Treasury bond got more expensive and yields fell more than 0.1 percentage points to 1.52% Friday morning. Gold prices also jumped.
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