On Friday, markets fell on fears that the fast-spreading strain of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa, and which has now been found in more than a dozen countries, could throw the global economic recovery into reverse.
But as more information emerged about the new “variant of concern,” the World Health Organization’s most serious category, markets began to rise.
That has spurred fears that Omicron could render existing treatments less effective, but Moderna and Pfizer indicated yesterday that they could quickly tweak their vaccines.
Back in February 2020, the S&P 500 fell 3.4 percent in one day and then continued to slide for a month and a half.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond is trading just above 1.5 percent, down from a recent high of nearly 1.7.
antitrust regulators will order Facebook’s parent company to unwind its $400 million acquisition of the online image platform Giphy, the Financial Times reports.
The son-in-law of Donald Trump is using Middle East connections made during his White House tenure to raise money for a new investment fund, The Times reports.
The companion of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with several felonies, including sex trafficking of underage girls.
The songwriter, who helped reshape the American songbook with musicals like “West Side Story,” “Company” and “Sweeney Todd,” died on Friday at 91.
Will there be new lockdowns or vaccine mandates? Some jumped on the Omicron variant as an opportunity to urge airlines to require proof of vaccination and testing for passengers.
In Britain, new rules come into effect tomorrow that require all travelers to isolate on arrival until they receive a negative test result; similar policies elsewhere would make attending conferences and other gatherings more difficult, a potential setback for airlines that were just starting to see a rebound.
Are workers ever going back to the office? Beyond the immediate question about office holiday parties, there’s the bigger question about the fate of offices next year and beyond.
— Shannon Abloh, widow of the barrier-breaking fashion designer Virgil Abloh, quoting her husband, who died on Sunday at age 41 of cancer.
The most recent report showed that the economy added more than 500,000 jobs in October after months of disappointing job figures.
► Theranos trial: Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing start-up, will continue to testify as she defends herself against fraud charges.
► Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday: Americans returned to in-person shopping with gusto on Black Friday.
Each year, the Center for Political Accountability and the Wharton School’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics ranks S&P 500 companies by the disclosure and accountability policies that govern their political spending.
Companies are “lifting the veil” on their political spending, the report said, responding to a greater awareness of corporate America’s political influence.
Only one — Intel — “has distinguished itself by making public a policy to explicitly steer clear of conflict or misalignment between its core values and its political donations,” according to the report.
Bruce Freed, president of the Center for Political Accountability, told DealBook that demanding greater transparency of how and why these donations are approved is the best way to sharpen the focus on the consequences on corporate political spending.