Market indexes saw their second straight up-day as of Wednesday’s close, adding to the slight gains made at the end of the regular session Tuesday compared with the extended sell-off from last week which ended Monday. The Dow gained +261 points, or +0.74%, while the S&^P 500 came in +1.02%. The Nasdaq bested the field of major indexes on the day, +1.18%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 gained +0.86% in the session.
Better Omicron news overseas is helping market participants stay buoyant; we’d seen a real uptick in risk before we knew much about the latest major Covid variant other than it was likely the most contagious strain of coronavirus of all. Today and yesterday, we’ve begun to see an influx of reports about Omicron blowing through populations rapidly but rather benignly: the South African rate of infection appears to have fallen off not four weeks from its initial discover in the country; in Europe, its Omicron wave is seeing far fewer hospitalizations compared with the Delta variant, which the continent is only now emerging from. Thus, we’re not being led down a nasty path toward a new shutdown in consumer activity, other than what’s already emerged over the past couple weeks.
Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) NVAX has just come out with its own report on the Covid vaccination’s results dealing with Omicron: similar to what we’ve seen with Pfizer PFE and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) MRNA, the efficacy does fall off a bit, although a booster shot has been proven to help keep patients immune from the disease. Shares are falling -7% in late trading on the news, though this could easily be seen through a positive prism instead of a negative one.
Existing Home Sales for November were reported earlier today, with a slight miss on the headline number: 6.46 million versus 6.50 million expected. Still, it’s the highest level since January, as well as a nice notch up from the previous month’s 6.34 million seasonally adjusted, annualized units sold. The key here in the lack of homes for sale in the current market; demand is still not a problem.
As opposed to New Home Sales, which hit a lower level in the spring and summer and proceeded to stay there on supply chain issues leading to higher buying prices, Existing Home Sales have rallied back somewhat. We shall see if a similar trend is emerging in New Home Sales when this report comes out tomorrow, also for the month of November.
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