New glimmers of hope in the pandemic supported Wall Street

New glimmers of hope in the corona pandemic supported Wall Street at the start of the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lagged a little behind. The technology stocks are seen as the winners of the pandemic, but are no longer in demand as the appetite for risk increases. The Dow Jones Index gained 1.9 percent to 35,227 points, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 1.2 and 0.9 percent, respectively. This continued the roller coaster ride of the past week. News about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus dominated the trade. And here the new mutation lost some of its fright and thus supported the sentiment. Dealers referred to an article by the Medical Research Council from South Africa, according to which the omicron symptoms are said to be milder than with previous variants. Anthony Fauci, the senior government medical advisor in the United States, also dismissed the issue. Omicron is "apparently not very serious," he said, although he also expressed reservations. Because how reliable the data is could not be estimated. The US health authority FDA wants to accelerate the approval process for adapted vaccines. "Reports that Omicron's symptoms are less severe are increasing risk-taking, but it's too early to get carried away," said Oanda's market researcher Craig Erlam. The focus was also on cryptocurrencies after the slump on Saturday, when Bitcoin fell by around 16 percent. At the beginning of the weekend, the price had slipped from stands around $ 53,800 to a low of around 42,000. Most recently, he dealt with around $ 49,000. The drastic sell-off followed a downturn in global stocks and also affected other cryptocurrencies. "Bitcoin is a high-risk investment and not a proven hedge against inflation," warned Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya. The dollar index rose 0.2 percent. The prospect of a tight monetary policy could support the greenback for the whole of the first half of 2022, speculated the Societe Generale. Afterwards, however, it is likely to enter a longer period of weakness. US bonds initially gave up a large part of their Friday profits with the increased risk appetite, but then recovered later on. Returns on the short end of the market rose, while those on the long tended to fall. Oil prices jumped again. Saudi Arabia raised prices for oil sales to the US and Asia over the weekend. This can be seen as a sign of robust demand. The decreasing fear of Omicron has also sparked demand fantasies, according to analysts. The oil service provider Halliburton spoke of underinvestment in the oil infrastructure and saw this as one of the reasons for the recently significant increase in oil prices. After the recent sharp rise in gold prices, profits have now been reaped - aided by a rise in the US dollar.