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New York stock market plummeted, with all major indices falling more than 2% on concerns over a new mutation and Omicron. President Biden has decided to impose travel restrictions on South Africa.
Correspondent Kim Jong-won from New York reports.
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Today (27th) is Black Friday in the United States, literally Black Friday.
The New York Stock Exchange, which closed early at 1 pm for the Thanksgiving holiday, plunged as the Dow fell 2.5%, the S&P 500 2.3%, and the Nasdaq, a tech stock, fell 2.2%.
Black Friday, the last Friday of November, marked the biggest drop in stock prices in history, the US media reported.
The fear of the new variant, the Omicron, spread across financial markets, with the 10-year Treasury yield slumped 0.161% and New York oil prices also fell more than 10%, dropping below $70 a barrel.
President Biden, who is currently on vacation, said in a statement that he had received a report of the omicron mutation from White House senior medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci, and imposed travel restrictions on eight South African countries, including South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
[Anthony Fauci / Chief Medical Adviser of the White House: The spread of Corona in South Africa has increased a little more than two or three days ago. The current situation is fluid. We are studying more data on the bird mutations in real time. I'm getting to know more and more.]
President Biden said another new mutation has emerged and it has become clear that the coronavirus will not end unless the world is vaccinated. I did.