Scientists in South Africa have detected a new coronavirus variant, and it has quickly become a source of concern in global markets.
Although the new coronavirus variant has not yet spread to the world, it seems to have taken over the global markets. While investors turned to safe harbors; Stocks, bond yields, and oil fell. Japanese yen, gold, dollar are on the rise.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.9 percent, the most since March. The Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong Hang Seng indexes fell more than 2 percent. In Asia, the sharpest declines were experienced in travel companies.
While the US and European futures indices fell, the 10-year US bond yield fell nearly 7 basis points to 1.5618 percent. The Bloomberg Dollar Index is at 1.192, 16-month highs. Gold is at $1,798 an ounce, up 1.52 percent. The barrel price of crude oil is down 2.62 percent. The South African rand fell to a one-year low against the dollar. Today will also be a short trading day for US markets, which were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday. NYSE and Nasdaq will be traded between 9:30-13:00 local time. Bond and over-the-counter markets will also close at 14:00 local time.
