In the last few days, too many people jumped directly into panic mode over the omicron variant to the COVID virus. Even though we had no data on how quickly it might spread, whether the current vaccines will be effective against it, and how it would affect both the immunized and Aaron Rodgers.
On Friday, media outlets reported that the stock market was tanking because of uncertainty over omicron. No, it didn’t tank. Yes, the Dow dropped a thousand points, which was big news when it happened 30+ years ago. But now that the DJIA is around 35,000, the loss was only about 3%.
It was more proof that, yet again, Wall Street traders and the reporters who cover them are not immune to overreacting to news. In fact, they do it all the time. They heard there’s a new coronavirus variant and immediately assumed — based on no hard evidence — it would have a negative impact on companies worldwide. By Monday morning, however, stock prices began rebounding because the world hadn’t gone into lockdown over the weekend.
Please remember that, at this point, anyone who claims to know anything about the omicron variant is just making stuff up. Even the top virologists haven’t had time to figure it out, so your friends on Facebook, some self-proclaimed CNBC genius, or any random loudmouth who couldn’t pass a basic science test certainly don’t know.
As always, early speculation is useless. Be patient, get the booster, invest for the longterm, and ignore the nonsense.