U.S. Stocks and the Omicron Variant of Covid-19

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as investors continued to monitor the situation regarding Covid’s new variant.

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 35.32 points or 0.1% to close at 35,754.75. The S&P 500 advanced 0.3% to 4,701.21. The index sat 0.9% from its record. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.6% to 15,786.99.

 Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s position regarding the Omicron variant of Covid-19 helped to boost stocks. World-famous companies said three doses of their vaccine are effective at neutralizing the omicron variant of Covid-19, citing their own preliminary lab tests.

 Shares of Pfizer, which are up 6.3% in the last month, declined slightly.

Travel-related stocks and Covid’s new variant

Travel-related stocks reached great results as the news about the Omicron variant gave investors added confidence in reopening bets. On Wednesday, Norwegian Cruise Line gained 8.2% and was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500. Carnival and Royal Caribbean advanced more than 5% each.

 It was a good day for airline and casino stocks as well. United Airlines and Las Vegas Sands added more than 4% each. Entertainment ETF and the Invesco Dynamic Leisure gained 1.1%. 

Shares of PagerDuty jumped 11.2% after the maker of IT response software better-than-expected current-quarter revenue guidance. 

Shares of Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms added 2.4%. The company’s shares jumped after it gave its employees the option to delay their return to the office by three to five months.

 The shares of Apple rose 2.2% after UBS maintained its buy rating on the stock. UBS decided not to change Apple’s buy rating on the stock despite recent concerns about demand for the iPhone 13. 

On Wednesday, shares of Weber dropped 5.1% despite the company reporting a narrower-than-expected loss for its latest quarter. Shares of the online clothing retailer Stitch Fix fell 23.9%.