After a strong showing last week, North American markets took a step back on Monday as fears over the Omicron variant and rising inflation took center stage.
indexes ended modestly lower on Tuesday after Labor Department data showed the producer price index for final demand in the 12 months through November shot up 9.6%, its largest gain since November 2010.
By Wednesday’s close, the Dow jumped 383 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 76 and 328 points, respectively.
The Nasdaq took the biggest hit, dropping 385 points, while the Dow and S&P 500 were off 30 and 41, respectively.
For the four trading days covered in this report, the Dow lost 73 points to close at 35,898, the S&P 500 dropped 43 points to settle at 4,669, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 450 points to close at 15,180.
In its latest meeting, the Fed had attributed broad improvements in employment data as one of the reasons for doubling the pace of its asset purchase reduction, however, the new Omicron variant threatens to disrupt further progress in the labour market as certain states have seen an uptick in Covid-related hospitalizations.
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