Stocks Rebound After Friday’s Sell-Off

Stocks Set To Open Higher

S&P 500 futures are gaining ground in premarket trading as traders rush to buy stocks after the sell-off which was triggered by fears over the new coronavirus variant.

The World Health Organization has labelled the new variant, Omicron, a “variant of concern”. Japan and Israel have already decided to close their borders to foreign citizens.

While countries rush to introduce additional virus containment measures, scientists try to evaluate whether Omicron is more dangerous than Delta and whether it can spread faster than the currently dominant variant of coronavirus.

At this point, it looks that market players have decided that Friday’s sell-off was caused by panic rather than by rational evaluation of the situation, so they try to buy stocks at a discount to recent price levels. However, it should be noted that trading will likely remain volatile in the upcoming trading sessions as more data on Omicron would emerge.

WTI Oil Rebounds After Huge Sell-Off

WTI oil found support near the $68 level and rebounded towards the $72 level as oil traders bet that OPEC+ would provide support to the market.

Russia has recently stated that hasty decisions were not necessary, but the market bets that OPEC+ will decide to keep its current production levels intact at the next meeting.

Recent reports indicated that OPEC+ postponed its technical meetings to Wednesday from Monday. The meeting of the joint ministerial monitoring committee is currently expected to take place on Thursday.

Not surprisingly, oil-related stocks are already moving higher in premarket trading, and they have a good chance to be among the leaders of today’s market rebound.

U.S. Dollar Gains Ground As Treasury Yields Move Higher

Demand for safe-haven assets declined today, so traders have started to sell U.S. government bonds, pushing their yields higher.

Rising yields provided support to the American currency, and the U.S. Dollar Index managed to get back above the resistance at 96.25.

Hgiher yields and stronger dollar have already put some pressure on gold, which managed to settle back below the $1800 level. That’s a disappointment for bulls who hoped that the emergence of the new variant of coronavirus would provide enough support to gold.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.