By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - U.S. stock futures were ahead in early APAC deals on Monday, after major benchmark indices registered significant losses during Friday’s holiday-shortened session, with the S&P 500 recording the worst post-Thanksgiving return since 1941 as market participants braced for further coronavirus contagion. The recent emergence of the Omicron variant has forced nations to halt flights from South Africa, and has already spread to countries such as Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands.
During Friday’s regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 905.04 points or 2.53% to 6-week lows of 34899.35, the S&P 500 lost 106.84 points or 2.27% to 4594.61, touching 4-week lows, while the NASDAQ Composite shed 353.57 points or 2.23% to 15491.66.
Dow Jones 30 Futures added 0.42%, S&P 500 Futures gained 0.52% Nasdaq 100 Futures lifted 0.48%.
Last week, the World Health Organization labeled the omicron strain a “variant of concern,” noting "Preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection."
WHO also said understanding the level of severity of Omicron "will take days to several weeks."
Meantime, investors are also closely monitoring key economic data released this week including pending home sales, the ADP nonfarm employment change, ISM's Manufacturing and non-Manufacturing PMIs, Initial jobless claims and an Unemployment rate reading.
On the bond markets, United States 10-Year dipped to 2-week lows of 1.482%.