Notably, the drastic effect on the stock market came after South Africa, which has already been facing the burnt of the COVID-19, announced the detection of the new COVID variant in their country.
With the detection of the new variant in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province, the World Health Organisation also sent a delegation of experts to collaborate with scientists to fasten the action needed to curb the spread of the infection.
As far as the oil market is concerned, the stocks fell about 13% after the WHO announcement, triggering worries to world leaders about the arrival of another slowdown in the period of two years.
Halley noted that the earlier delta variant had also devastated the global market after the Indian health authorities announced the detection of the highly infectious variant around April this year, but this time, he pointed that the Omicron has a larger impact as compared to earlier.
On the other hand, when the reporters asked US President Joe Biden about the devastating situation of the stock market, he replied, “I expected it.” “They always do when there’s something on COVID arises,” Biden said.