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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened higher on Monday, recovering from the abrupt sell-off on Friday that happened in reaction to news of a new variant of Covid-19.
The Omicron variant, as it is now called, appears to be more highly transmissible than the Delta variant that has caused most Covid-19 deaths this year, and World Health Organization officials have officially termed it a ‘variant of concern’. However, there is no evidence yet to suggest that it is more deadly than Delta, and stocks have been supported on Monday by a number of analysts calling Friday’s sell-off an over-reaction.
By 9:40 AM ET (1440 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 160 points, or 0.5%, at 35,075 points. The S&P 500 was up 1.0% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.4%. All three indices had suffered their worst day in months on Friday, in a move that was exacerbated by low liquidity due to the holiday.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) stock stood out in early trade, rising as much as 12% on reports that founder Jack Dorsey may step down as chief executive. It quickly gave up most of its gains, however, to trade up 4.4%. Dorsey has been heavily criticized by some shareholders for allotting plenty of time to other projects, notably payments company Square (NYSE:SQ), where is also CEO. The company has also struggled to grow advertising revenue as quickly as some other social media rivals, and while its repeated failures in reining abusive behavior by its users has generate significant concern among lawmakers and regulators.
