By Akash Sriram

(Reuters) – Companies that are benefitting from this year’s economic reopening include AMC Entertainment (NYSE :), United Airlines (NYSE 🙂 Corp) and Carnival (NYSE 🙂 Corp. Fears over a possible vaccine-resistant variant of the coronavirus plagued many companies on Friday.

South Africa discovered the variant and several countries tightened their border controls to allow investors to buy safer Asian and European stocks.

Trades before the bell indicated that U.S. stock were likely to follow the selloff with American Airlines (NASDAQ), Delta Air, United Airlines and United Carrier losing between 8 and 9 percent.

Hyatt Hotels, Marriott, and Hilton saw their sales fall between 4.7% to 6% while Carnival cruises, however, experienced a rise of 5.7% to 6.6%. Royal Caribbean (NYSE.) Cruises plunged 10%, while Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE.) fell 10%. AMC Theatres suffered a 6.2% loss.

Scientists aren’t sure what the exact variant is, but they do know that it may have an uncommon combination of mutations and can evade immune reactions. It could also be transmissible.

The economic recovery is quite remarkable and there’s only one thing that can stop it from being complete. That would be something more serious. While time will show how anxious we really should be, investors continue to sell in anticipation of bad news,” Ryan Detrick senior market strategist, LPL Financial (NASDAQ):

The variant’s news sparked rallies in the last year’s favorite stay-at-home companies like Peloton (NASDAQ 🙂 or streaming giant Netflix(NASDAQ :). Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:), causing them to rise between 6%-9%.

According to Sam Stovall (chief investment strategist, CFRA Research), “Investment gods gave the late-to sell investors another chance because the stocks which did well during the COVID Lockdown, such as Zoom and Peloton, are likely going to do well once more.”