US Stocks Claw Back Some Of Their Losses

US equity markets jumped on Monday, winning back some of the prior session's losses on hopes that vaccines and therapeutics will limit the impact of the latest Covid-19 variant.

Major indices tumbled more than two percent on Friday on worries the Omicron variant could derail the global economic recovery.

But investors appeared less concerned on Monday as vaccine makers Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson signalled they were already working on a potential formula targeted at the new strain.

"The consensus is that Friday, the market probably overdid" the losses, said Art Hogan, chief strategist at National Securities.

"We have seen that new variant and new waves of Covid infection seem to have a diminishing economic impact because of the level of vaccinations and boosters."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 35,135, up 0.7 percent.

The S&P 500 gained 1.3 percent to 4,655, while the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.9 percent to 15,782.

Markets are awaiting a trove of economic data this week, including readings on the manufacturing and services sector as well as the November jobs report.

Among individual companies, Twitter dropped 2.3 percent as co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as chief executive.

Twitter's chief technical officer Parag Agrawal will replace Dorsey in the top post, the company said, while the departing co-founder will remain a member of the board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders. (AFP)