Omicron in the US hits market

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 54 points, or 0.4%, to 12,670.24. Turnover was $157 million.

BNZ strategist Jason Wong said markets remain nervous about the variant and are in an “information vacuum until more data” on its transmissibility, deadliness, and vaccine resistance becomes available.

In the meantime, US investors chose to take some risk off the table and the main indices all turned negative in the final hour of the American trading session, closing down more than 1%.

This was enough to throw off-market sentiment in Asian markets with Australia’s ASX 200 falling at market open before gradually recovering throughout the day.