Stock futures are rising, putting Wall Street on course to stabilize after last week’s Omicron-variant selloff. Here’s what we’re watching in Monday’s trading:
- Vaccine makers said they were assembling teams of scientists to assess the new Omicron strain of Covid. Moderna climbed 10% premarket, Pfizer gained 1% and Novavax added 3.7%.
- New Covid restrictions are rattling the travel industry again, although airlines said the busy Thanksgiving weekend generally went smoothly. Southwest Airlines rose 1% premarket, Delta Air Lines gained 1.9% and American Airlines climbed 1.6%.
- Cruise lines were also recovering from some of their big declines last week, with Carnival up 3.7% premarket and Royal Caribbean up 3.6%.
- Crude prices were also clawing back some of last week’s drop, and energy producers were climbing. Occidental Petroleum gained 3.4%, Devon Energy rose 2% and Diamondback Energy rose 2.2%. Oil-services company Halliburton was up 2%.
- Zoom Video Communications got a bit boost last week as investors considered the prospect of an extended period of remote work. That trade was partially reversing early Monday, with the stock down 1.9%.
- Bitcoin was also on the rise, up 1.3% from its price on Sunday to $57,035.86. Coinbase shares gained 2.1%, and bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Hut 8 Mining gained 4.3% and 3.6% respectively.
Chart of the Day
- Private-equity firms have announced a record $944.4 billion worth of buyouts in the U.S. so far this year, more than double the volume of the previous peak in 2007.
Write to James Willhite at james.willhite@wsj.com