US Market extends losses on Omicron woes

The US stocks moved significantly lower on Monday, 20 December 2021, with the major averages have all slid firmly into negative territory, on concerns about the impact of the newfound Omicron variant of the coronavirus on the global economy, with the fast spreading variant now present around 90 countries.

Meanwhile, selloff was also fuelled as President Joe Biden's social spending and climate bill hit a significant setback after U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat who is key to Biden's hopes of passing the investment bill, said on Sunday he would not support the package.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index retreated 433.28 points, or 1.23%, to 34,932.16. The S&P500 index dropped 52.62 points, or 1.14%, to 4,568.02. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index tanked 188.74 points, or 1.24%, to 14,980.94.

Total shares volume turnover on U.S. exchanges stood at 9.78 billion shares, down from yesterday's 17.27 billion shares. Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE exchange by 2724 to 662 and 126 closed unchanged. In the NASDAQ, 3406 issues advanced, 1275 issues declined, and 217 issues unchanged.

Total 9 of 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes fell, with bottom performing issues were financials (down 1.9%), materials (down 1.82%), industrials (down 1.65%), and consumer discretionary (down 1.65%).

The omicron variant is raging across to the world and the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. Covid cases are increasing into year-end with more than 156,000 reported on Friday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Shares of financial companies were major drag on the market, with Goldman Sachs down 2.6% and Wells Fargo down nearly 2.3%. JPMorgan and Bank of America also dropped 1.8% and 1.6%, respectively.

Shares of energy companies also declined as crude oil prices dropped amid concerns the spread of the Omicron variant would crimp demand for fuel. Devon Energy slid 2.4% and Exxon Mobil shed about 1.5%.

Among Indian ADR, HDFC Bank shed 2.24% to $61.97, WNS Holdings dropped 0.64% to $83.66, INFOSYS sank 1.46% to $23.69, ICICI Bank fell 2% to $18.44, Tata Motors fell 2.77% to $29.471, and Azure Power Global sank 1% to $18.05. Dr Reddys Labs added 0.35% to $60.66. Wipro closed steady at $9.01.

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