Bill Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, said that the new Omicron variant may boost the US stock market.
A thought was written by Ackman on Sunday evening. The Omicron virus causes mild to moderate symptoms and is more transmissible, according to early reports. If this is true, this is bullish for markets.
The equity market and bond market are likely to be bearish according to Ackman.
According to a report by CNBC, Ackman has been a voice to watch in the investment community, especially after he went on CNBC in March 2020 to sound a warning in the market that "hell is coming." Ackman asked Donald Trump to shut down the country for a month in order to save the economy.
The stock market has been on edge, with futures on the stock market dropping around 400 points on Tuesday and oil sliding, and it is not yet known if Ackman will be right about this.
A flash poll conducted byDeutsche Bank Research on Monday of 1,538 respondents indicated that the market was not too concerned about the new variant, with only 10% of the survey respondents indicating that they thought it would be a big deal in the markets by the end of the year.
The World Health Organization reported the Omicron variant to them on November 24. The World Health Organization says that the variant poses a very high global risk due to its potential to spread quickly and cause severe infections.
Moderna's CEO thinks that the current crop of vaccines will not be as effective against Omicron as they were against the Delta variant, and he thinks there will be a material drop in efficacy.
The South African doctor who first reported the variant said that the people she saw with it had mild symptoms and did not lose their sense of smell or taste.
Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner, said this week that it is "almost a certainty" that Omicron will make its way to the US. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, has warned Americans that an Omicron case has not been detected in the US yet, with the degree of transmissibility currently seen in the variant, it "almost invariably is going to go all over."
President Joe Biden reassured the country on Monday that the Omicron variant is not a cause for panic and that he did not see the need for additional travel restrictions or lockdowns at the moment.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all adults in the US get their booster shots of the vaccine to make sure they have immunity against the variant.
