Category: Breaking News

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Oil prices drop 2% as rapid Omicron spread dims fuel demand outlook

  • Omicron threat looms over winter holidays in Europe and U.S.
  • Netherlands enters lockdown
  • U.S. drillers add oil and gas rigs for second week in a row

SINGAPORE, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Oil prices slumped 3% on Monday as surging cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Europe and the United States stoked investor worries that new restrictions on businesses to combat its spread may hit fuel demand. Brent crude futures fell $2.14, or 2.9%, to $71.38 a barrel by 0747 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $2.45, or 3.5%, to $68.41 a barrel. “Today’s Asia … weak sentiment in oil prices seems to go in line with a weakness seen in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures,” said Kelvin Wong, market analyst at CMC Markets. “(This is) due to fears of impending restrictions on economic activities to contain the current increasing spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant worldwide which may increase the risk of demand slowdown.” The Netherlands went into lockdown on Sunday and the possibility of more COVID-19 restrictions being imposed ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays loomed over several European countries. U.S. health officials urged Americans on Sunday to get booster shots, wear masks and be careful if they travel over the winter holidays, as the Omicron variant raged across the world and was set to take over as the dominant strain in the United States. Meanwhile, U.S. energy firms this week added oil and natural gas rigs for a second week in a row. Continue reading “Oil prices drop 2% as rapid Omicron spread dims fuel demand outlook”

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Omicron has extraordinary transmissibility – Fauci

NIAID director Anthony Fauci told the CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the U.S. will likely see record numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the weeks ahead due to the Omicron variant. The variant has been detected in 89 countries and experts are warning of a large winter surge due to the variant’s high transmissibility and its ability to evade immune protection. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Asked by host Jake Tapper whether the U.S. is likely to record high numbers of cases, as well as hospitalizations and deaths, Fauci said, “Unfortunately, Jake, I think that that is going to happen.” “We are going to see a significant stress in some regions of the country on the hospital system, particularly in those areas where you have a low level of vaccination,” he added. “This virus is extraordinary. It has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days,” adding that the variant is “going to take over.” “It is going to be a tough few weeks to months, as we get deeper into the winter.”

Fauci also appeared on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, where he mentioned the variant’s “extraordinary capability of spreading” and that Omicron is “raging” through the world. Fauci also warned that the belief that Omicron cases might be less severe is derived from data from South Africa, where the population has had “so much experience with prior infections that it might be underlying immunity that’s making it look like it’s less severe.” “As a virus, it inherently may not be less severe,” he warned. “We have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated. And that’s going to be a real problem for stress on the hospital system” Fauci added of the coming situation in the U.S.

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UK may face ‘hundreds of thousands’ of COVID cases per day – report

Tougher restrictions may reportedly soon be introduced in the face of the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant, after experts warned there are likely already hundreds of thousands of new infections every day. Stricter measures could be imposed after Boxing Day, according to a report in The Sun newspaper, which said the contingency plan had not yet been presented to ministers. Continue reading “UK may face ‘hundreds of thousands’ of COVID cases per day – report”

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The Netherlands imposes new virus lockdown

LONDON (AP) — Nations across Europe moved to reimpose tougher measures to stem a new wave of COVID-19 infections spurred by the highly transmissible omicron variant, with the Netherlands leading the way by imposing a nationwide lockdown.All non-essential stores, bars and restaurants in the Netherlands will be closed until Jan. 14 starting Sunday, caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at a hastily arranged press conference Saturday night. Schools and universities will shut until Jan. 9, he said. In what is surely to prove a major disappointment, the lockdown terms also rein in private holiday celebrations. Residents only will be permitted two visitors except for Christmas and New Year’s, when four will be allowed, according to Rutte.
Continue reading “The Netherlands imposes new virus lockdown”

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Dow tumbles 530 pts at close on tapering, virus worries

Major stock market benchmarks in the United States ended the session in the red on Friday, with the Dow Jones plunging more than 530 points amid worries regarding both the monetary policy and the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.Federal Reserve’s Christopher Waller and Mary Daly both expressed somewhat hawkish stances earlier during the day, while the sentiment was also negatively impacted by a rise in COVID infections, with the state of New York recording an all-time high in daily cases.

The Dow Jones dropped 1.48%, or 532 points, as the session came to a close with Goldman Sachs surrendering 3.92%. The Nasdaq 100 was concurrently down by 0.39% as NetEase dived 5.15%. At the same time, the S&P 500 lost 1.03%. Missouri-based Leggett & Platt was the index’s worst performer, with a 7.98% plummet at the closing bell.

The euro nosedived 0.84% versus the dollar, selling for 1.12383 at 3:59 pm ET.

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NY to require boosters for ‘fully vaccinated’ status

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced during a press conference on Thursday that she is planning to introduce legislation that includes a booster shot within the definition of being “fully vaccinated.” While the Democratic governor noted that the legislation needed to be more fleshed out and required more data to be collected, she signaled the change would happen eventually, saying that “at some point, we have to determine that fully vaccinated means boosted as well,” Hochul’s remarks come as the country begins to see an uptick of COVID-19 cases again and as health officials grapple with the spread of the omicron variant, which President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci warned on Thursday would likely be the dominant strain in “a few weeks.” Fauci also signaled that the omicron variant could have serious implications on hospitals, which could see a strain of resources. “Besides the toll of suffering and death which will inevitably go up if in fact we have that convergence in the winter months of flu and omicron and delta, we could get our hospital systems overwhelmed,” Fauci said. The government’s top infectious disease expert said he was more concerned about Americans who remain unvaccinated, reassuring the public that people who have already received the vaccines and boosters would be “relatively well protected, at least against severe disease.” Fauci said earlier this month that it “it’s going to be a matter of when, not if” the definition of being “fully vaccinated” changes, but he noted that the change likely was not going to happen right away.

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Joe Biden warns of ‘winter of death’ for the unvaccinated, with Omicron ‘here now and spreading’

Joe Biden issued a grim warning on Thursday as he said that unvaccinated Americans “will soon overwhelm” US hospitals and they will experience “a winter of severe illness and death”. “I want to send a direct message to the American people: Due to the steps we’ve taken, Omicron has not yet spread as fast as it would have otherwise done,” Mr Biden said at the White House following his Covid-19 briefing. “But it’s here now and it’s spreading and it’s going to increase.” “We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated — for themselves, their families and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm,” he said. The US president urged Americans to get their booster shots, saying it was “past time” to get one and prevent schools and businesses from shutting down. “We’re gonna protect our economic recovery. If we do this, we’re gonna keep schools and businesses open … and I want to see everyone around enjoy that. I want to see them enjoy the fact that they’re able to be in school, that businesses are open and the holidays are coming,” he said. President Biden wore his mask throughout the meeting with his coronavirus adviser Dr Anthony Fauci, and Dr Julie Ledgerwood and Dr John Mascola of the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center on Thursday. His stark warnings come as Covid infections surge across the US, driven by the heavily-mutated Omicron variant of coronavirus. Omicron has accounted for nearly 3 per cent of Covid cases in the US as of Saturday, up from only 0.4 per cent the week before, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The country also reached a grim milestone of 800,000 deaths from Covid-19 this week.
Continue reading “Joe Biden warns of ‘winter of death’ for the unvaccinated, with Omicron ‘here now and spreading’”

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Omicron thrives in airways, not lungs; new data on asymptomatic cases

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Omicron multiplies faster in airways, slower in lungs Major differences in how efficiently Omicron and other variants of the coronavirus multiply may help predict Omicron’s effects, researchers said on Wednesday. Compared to the earlier Delta variant, Omicron multiplies itself 70 times more quickly in tissues that line airway passages, which may facilitate person-to-person spread, they said. But in lung tissues, Omicron replicates 10 times more slowly than the original version of the coronavirus, which might contribute to less-severe illness. A formal report of the findings is under peer review for publication and has not been released by the research team. In a news release issued by Hong Kong University, study leader Dr. Michael Chan Chi-wai said, “It is important to note that the severity of disease in humans is not determined only by virus replication” but also by each person’s immune response to the infection, which sometimes evolves into life-threatening inflammation. Continue reading “Omicron thrives in airways, not lungs; new data on asymptomatic cases”

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COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against Omicron – WHO

GENEVA (Reuters) – Preliminary evidence indicates that COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against infection and transmission linked to the Omicron coronavirus variant, which also carries a higher risk of reinfection, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The WHO, in its weekly epidemiological update, said that more data was needed to better understand the extent to which Omicron may evade immunity derived from either vaccines or previous infection. “As a result of this, the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high,” it said, echoing comments made by WHO officials at an online briefing on Tuesday. For the first time since the dominant Delta variant was classified as a variant of concern in April, the percentage of Delta sequences registered on the GISAID global science database has declined this week compared with other variants of concern, it said. This needs to be interpreted with caution as countries may perform targeted sequencing for Omicron and therefore upload fewer sequences on all other variants, including Delta, it said. The Delta variant is still dominant, however, accounting for 99.2% of the almost 880,000 sequences uploaded to GISAID with specimens collected in the last 60 days. But the trend is declining in the proportion of Alpha, Beta and Gamuma, and with the emergence of Omicron variant. Out of the total, some 3,755 – or 0.4% – were Omicron and the other three variants of concern together numbered 401, less than 0.1% each.