Wall Street ends lower, under the clouds Omicron, Fed and Congress<

The New York Stock Exchange ended in sharp decline on Monday, jittered by the bad news of the pandemic, a setback for Joe Biden in Congress and the Fed's narrow room for maneuver.

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The Dow Jones fell 1.23% to 34,932.16 points, the Nasdaq index, 1.24% to 14,980.94 points, and the broader S&P 500 index, 1.14%, to 4,568 .02 dots. “Uncertainty regarding the ultimate impact of the Omicron variant continues,” Schwab analysts summed up in a note. If the intensity of the virus seems relatively moderate, as expected, its speed of spread has nevertheless led the authorities of several countries to put in place health restrictions. The Omicron variant “adds to interest rate uncertainty,” according to Sam Stovall, head of investment strategy at CFRA. The spread of Omicron poses the risk of an economic downturn, but one that would no doubt be accompanied by inflation as it would worsen supply chain disruptions.

“The Fed (American Central Bank) is a bit stuck,” considers the analyst, “because inflation will be a problem in both cases,” if the economy recovers or if it is permanently disrupted by the new variant, “and that could force it to raise rates” no matter what.

Setback for Joe Biden

To the pandemic was added the setback suffered by President Joe Biden in Congress, whose massive plan of social and environmental measures seems close to failure. Moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin indeed indicated on Sunday that he would not vote for the text, when his voice was able to tip the balance favorably for Joe Biden. Several media nevertheless reported on Monday that the West Virginia senator had not yet closed the door definitively. "Mr. Manchin's continued willingness to negotiate has given the market some hope of a deal," Briefing.com analysts said, helping indices limit their losses on the session. Bond rates rose slightly at the end of the day, with the yield on 10-year US government bonds posting at 1.42% against 1.40% on Friday.

Among the values ​​in the spotlight on Monday, the American software publisher and giant of remote computing (cloud), Oracle, was sanctioned (-5.15% to 91.64 dollars) after the announcement of the acquisition of Cerner (+0.80% to 90.49 dollars), a company specializing in IT services to the medical sector, for an enterprise value of 28.3 billion dollars.

The largest caps on Wall Street, Apple (-0.81%) and Microsoft (-1.20%), continued to fall back, handicapped by profit taking at the end of a good vintage.

Also in reverse, Tesla (-3.50%) and the new stars of electric transport, from Rivian (-7.90%) to Lucid (-5.05%), growth stocks shunned by investors which have taken them to valuations above those of the auto giants.

Novavax slipped (-7.07% to 201.95 dollars) despite the green light on Monday from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the marketing of its anti-Covid vaccine. Nuvaxovid is based on a more classic technology, similar to that used for vaccines against hepatitis B or whooping cough. Novavax's competitor, Moderna, also fell (-6.25% to 276.38 dollars) despite the publication of the results of a clinical study which shows that a booster of its anti-Covid vaccine made with a dose complete, compared to half a dose currently, further increases its effectiveness against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The AMC chain of theaters did well (+1.99% to $29.70) after the announcement that the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home” had grossed $253 million at the North American box office this weekend, the third-best release of all time, pandemic or not.

The Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna made an encouraging debut on Wall Street (+5.92% to 10.74 dollars), where it entered through a financial vehicle of the European group Investindustrial, thus becoming the first Italian fashion label to be listed in New York.