US open: Stocks reclaim some of Friday's omicron-fuelled losses
Wall Street stocks were trading higher early on Monday following Friday's omicron variant-fuelled selloff.
As of 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.29% at 35,001.93, while the S&P 500 was 1.00% firmer at 4,640.56 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 1.42% stronger at 15,711.24.
The Dow opened 102.59 points higher on Monday, reclaiming just a small amount of losses suffered at the end of last week as traders returned from the Thanksgiving Day break to concerns regarding a new and virulent strain of Covid-19 found in South Africa.
Market participants were still monitoring developments around the new "variant of concern" at the open on Monday, with preliminary evidence suggesting omicron comes with an increased risk of reinfection, according to the World Health Organization.
While the variant was initially reported to be centralised to South Africa, it has now been found in the UK, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Australia and Hong Kong. No cases have been detected in the US as of yet.
Travel stocks, which took a beating on Monday, were in the green in early trading, with Carnival, Norwegian, American, Delta, United and Booking Holdings all trading higher, while bank stocks were also higher after the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.536%.
On the macro front, signed contracts on existing homes, also known as pending sales, jumped 7.5% month-on-month in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. While sales were still 1.4% lower when compared to the same time a year ago, it is worth noting that October 2020 marked a cyclical high for the US housing market. Sales were strongest in the Midwest and the South, rising 11.8% and 8.0% month-on-month, respectively.
Still to come, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a speech at 2005 GMT.