SINGAPORE — Stocks in Asia-Pacific struggled for direction in Thursday trade, as concerns over the economic impact of the omicron Covid variant continue to weigh on investor sentiment.

Hong Kong Hang Seng indexThe stock gained 0.38% to reverse earlier losses. The shares of RazerThe city saw a drop of more than 12% due to choppy trading. According to the company, a consortium offered to buy it privately for 2.82 Hong Kong Dollars each. This is about 5.62% more than Razer’s Wednesday closing.

The rebound in stocks on the mainland China was also due to earlier falls. Shanghai compositeThe increase in 0.12% Shenzhen componentThe margin was 0.178% lower

The Other Places Nikkei 225Japan’s Topix index fell 0.6%, while Japan’s declined 0.6%. South Korea KospiThe rise was 0.5%

The Australian capital is Sydney. S&P/ASX 200It fell by 0.4%. According to data, Australia’s October trade surplus was 7.97 billion Australian dollars or 11.22 billion Australian dollar (seasonally adjusted). This was in contrast to the 11 billion Australian Dollar surplus that was expected by Reuters.

MSCI’s Asia-Pacific share index outside Japan was 0.23 percent higher.

Wall Street stocks saw an overnight sharp decline after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the confirmation. first case of omicron in the U.S.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 461.68 points to 34,022.04 while the S&P 500 declined 1.18% to 4,513.04. The Nasdaq Composite declined 1.83% to 15,254.05.

The CBOE Volatility IndexWall Street’s most popular fear gauge, the “VIX”, jumped to 31.12 on Wednesday versus levels lower than 27 at the beginning of this week.

U.S. stock futuresAfter Wednesday’s decline, trading was positive. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 119 points. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures also both traded in positive territory.

The U.S. dollar indexAfter briefly rising above 96.5 in the previous week,, which measures the greenback’s performance against a basket its peers, stood at 96.032.

The Japanese yenIt traded at 113.06 USD, still higher than earlier levels of 113.4 against the greenback. The Australian dollarIt was 0.7114, after having dropped from $0.715.

Petroleum prices rose in the early hours of Asia trade, with an international benchmark Brent crude futuresAchieved 0.64%, to $69.31/barrel U.S. crude futuresBarrel price increased 0.7% to $66.03