FirstFT: Stocks and oil prices sink as new coronavirus variant spooks markets

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Good Morning. I hope you had a good thanksgiving. As you have probably noticed, we took this holiday off, but we are glad to be with you again today.

Global stock and oil prices plummeted on Friday as investors sought shelter in safe investments after a new variant of coronavirus rocked market sentiment.

A large sell-off in European stocks followed similar moves in Asian markets. The European Stoxx 600 lost 3.1 percent in early trading, while the French CAC 40 index and the German Dax 30 fell with similar margins.

The B.1.1.529 Sars-Cov-2 variant, which was first identified in Botswana, is believed to be responsible for a spike in Covid cases in southern Africa over the past week and has alerted global health authorities for it Vaccines and vaccines can obviously handle spreads faster than the Delta variant.

“Things on the Covid front have escalated pretty quickly in the past 12 hours,” said Jim Reid, strategist at Deutsche Bank. Yesterday the new variant “slowly attracted increasing attention, but it started to dominate the markets overnight,” he said.

Thank you for reading FirstFT Americas. Here’s the rest of today’s news – Zehra

Five more stories on the news

1. Countries prohibit travelers from southern Africa because of the Covid variant The EU and UK decided to impose travel restrictions on a group of South African nations as a surge in cases of a highly mutated variant of coronavirus caused alarms among global health officials.

2. US Commission calls for stricter controls on flows to Chinese markets The latest annual report by the US-China Economic Security Review Commission highlighted security concerns due to a huge surge in US investment.

3. France cancels British invitation to talks on migrant crisis France has withdrawn an invitation to the UK Home Secretary to discuss the migrant crisis following a public letter from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to President Macron. The letter called for mutual French and British maritime patrols in each other’s territorial waters and the repatriation of the thousands of migrants who reach the English coast to France.

4. Public prosecutor’s office examines allegations of fraud by Deutsche Bahn The Stuttgart public prosecutor is examining the fraud allegations of the two whistleblowers. If they come to the conclusion that there is a reasonable suspicion of possible criminal behavior, they can initiate criminal investigations under German law.

5. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi excluded from the Libyan presidential election The Libyan electoral body, citing his convictions, excluded the son of the late dictator from the election of the oil-rich North African state.

A photo of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi from 2008 — Analysts considered it unlikely that the disqualification of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi would lead to renewed instability © EPA

Coronavirus digestion

the the World Trade Organization head has warned that highly explosive talks about renouncing intellectual property for Covid-19 vaccines have “stalled”.
Airline share crashes as the new Covid variant triggers travel restrictions, with the International Airlines Group, owner of British Airways, losing up to 20 percent in early trading.

The next days

Black Friday Thanksgiving is followed by the consumer frenzy, now an international event that offers reading about retail health. US consumers are expected to spend between $ 5.1 billion and $ 5.4 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, a record for the day, Adobe Analytics said Thursday.

WHO emergency meeting on variant The World Health Organization will discuss the new coronavirus variant, which was first identified in South Africa and Botswana and is likely to spread faster than expected.

Economic indicators Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill will deliver a speech on the UK’s economic outlook. France will publish data on consumer confidence and Switzerland will publish GDP figures for the third quarter.

Black Friday strike by Amazon workers On one of the busiest days of the year, Amazon employees in 20 countries – including the US, UK and several in the EU – are planning protests and work stoppages. (BBC)

What else we read

Abortion and the American Division The Supreme Court ruled this summer not to block a Texas law granting private individuals a bounty to file lawsuits against anyone helping with an abortion after a “fetal heartbeat” was detected. Katie Roiphe asks how did this come about?

What the ‘big quit’ tells us about inflation The pandemic has resulted in even more people deciding that the job market is not for them. But when resignation rates tell a clear story, the general labor market participation message is far more subtle, writes Chris Giles.

Honduras on the sidelines ahead of the presidential election The Hondurans will vote on Sunday. The stability of a country plagued by corruption, drug trafficking and one of the world’s highest murder rates is at stake.

The logical case for using reverse logic What problems could we solve by doing exactly the opposite of what might be expected? Here’s a thought: environmentalists should fight climate change by buying coal mines and then closing them down. Tim Harford takes a look at other reversals of logic.

Tim Harford: “Obvious and direct changes have indirect and less obvious consequences” © Anna Wray

Yes, there is a third way to “wakefulness” Liberals should aim to marginalize the whole “wakefulness” debate, writes Simon Kuper. It shouldn’t be the culture war of our time.

Books

From politics, business, and history to art, food, and of course, fiction, FT writers and critics choose their favorite reads in our annual publication highlights recap. You can browse your selection here.