North American Markets Slump Over Mutant Coronavirus News

Summary

• The STOXX® Europe 600 index dwindled about three per cent on Monday.
• Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined by about three per cent in the early hours of the day, while the S&P 500 e-mini futures sank by 1.7 per cent.
• Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average e-mini showed a decrease of about 1.6 per cent as of 7 a.m. Eastern Time, while the Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures dwindled about 1.12 per cent early on Monday morning.

The news of a new mutant strain of the coronavirus creeping up on the world saw stock market and futures sink on Monday, December 21.

The STOXX® Europe 600 index, which measures the stocks of 600 European companies, dwindled about three per cent on Monday. Travel and energy stocks took the biggest hit as countries such as France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, etc. suspended all passenger flights from the United Kingdom, where the new variant of COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly.

Sterling fell sharply by about 1.7 per cent against the US dollar, while the CAD/USD pair down 0.61 per cent at 0.7775 at the time of filing this.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined by about three per cent in the early hours of the day.

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Impact of New Mutant Coronavirus Strain On North American Markets

The mutant COVID-19 strain’s effect is being felt miles away on the North American stock markets as well. The US futures sank by more than 400 points on Monday.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average e-mini showed a decrease of about 1.6 per cent as of 7 a.m. Eastern Time. The S&P 500 e-mini futures sank 1.7 per cent and the Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures dwindled about 1.12 per cent early on Monday morning.

In Canada, futures of the main stock index of S&P/TSX Composite were impacted by the news of the new variant of the virus and the travel ban on UK passenger flights. March futures on the broad composite index were down by about 1.3 per cent as of 7 a.m. Eastern Time.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index had closed at 17,534.63 on Friday, December 18, down about 0.67 per cent.

Impacted by yet another round of travel bans, futures on the Brent crude and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped by US$ 3 on Monday, which reported their sharpest dip in a day since June 2020.

Gold futures, as of early morning Monday, are down about 0.13 per cent.