Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — There are more details about South Africa’s Omicron Covid-19 variant. These information are not good news. The stock market is expected to open lower in line with this. According to the U.S. labor markets report, there will be another sharp rise in U.S. employment. Didi Global announced that it will delist New York and could spark a larger exodus from Chinese-based businesses. After a disappointing market debut, ADRs are steady. Oil recovers sharply, as OPEC (Russia) and Russia continue to hover over the pause button in relation to any future production increases. This is what you should know about Friday 3 December in the financial markets.

Spread 1 Omicron to Reach the Young

There are fears that Omicron, the Omicron variation of Covid-19, will be more dangerous than previously thought. Data from South Africa where Omicron was identified first, points to an alarming new trend.

The country’s rate of hospitalizations and new infections are rising at a faster pace than during previous pandemic waves. As of Thursday, the seven-day median number of new infections rose from less than 600 two weeks back to more than 5,000 today.  

“Preliminary data suggests Omicron is more transmissible and has some immune evasion,” said Michelle Groome, head of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Wassila Jassat, NICD’s public health expert, was also quoted saying the new wave had affected all age groups and especially children below five. This pattern will be a major change over previous Covid-19 waves, which have affected older adults in adisproportionate way.

2. Employment report shows continued strength of the labor market

This report was published before the Omicron variant discovery. However, it will send out a strong signal regarding the U.S. labour market’s health at 8:30AM ET (1330 GMT).

Analysts predict that the U.S. will have created 550,000 nonfarm jobs between now and mid-November. This is an increase from the 531,000 in November. Both the ADP survey and the last two weeks’ jobless claims numbers have turned out stronger-than-expected, suggesting that the potential for a surprise is – if anything – skewed to the upside.

Also of note at 10 AM ET will be the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing purchasing managers index, which is expected to cool only slightly from its record high last month. Also due are durable goods orders, and factory goods orders (exclusions defense).

3. Stocks to Open Lower  

U.S. stocks will open lower before the labor market report, due to South Africa news. 

At 6:15 AM ET they were 0.2% down at 93 points. While and both were down 0.3%. The three major indices closed just 0.3% below last week’s close on Thursday, having made significant gains.

Suggestions that a new wave of Covid-19 could stop the Federal Reserve’s plans to tighten monetary policy were countered by both governor Randall Quarles and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester over the last 24 hours, the latter telling the Financial Times that a more transmissible disease could deter people from re-entering the labor force, putting further upward pressure on wages.

DocuSign, NASDAQ:) will likely be the stock in attention later. DocuSign plummeted in premarket following disappointing guidance. Ulta Beauty’s (NASDAQ:) stronger premarket results are leading to a sharp turn in the opposite direction.

4. Didi confirms delisting; Grab steadies after debut debacle

ADRs in ride-hailing giant Didi Global soared after the company confirmed it plans to delist from the New York Stock Exchange, the first immediate consequence of the Securities and Exchanges Commission’s publication of new rules ensuring that U.S.-listed companies can be thoroughly audited.

Didi didn’t give any details about the terms on which investors – who are sitting on heavy losses after its ill-fated listing earlier this year – would be cashed out. The company’s primary listing is set to move to either mainland China or Hong Kong, significantly narrowing the pool of capital available to it.

Elsewhere, Grab – the Southeast Asian ‘super-app’ company whose profile is a rough proxy for some of the Chinese companies that may soon delist from the U.S. – recouped some of its losses in premarket after falling by over 20% on its post-SPAC merger debut.    

5. Oil is back to normal after the nuanced OPEC+ messages

After OPEC and its allies stated that they were open to abandoning a January production increase, crude oil prices rose quickly.

The bloc’s move was an effort to weigh the obvious strength of current oil demand against the risk of a possible setback from new mobility restrictions as the Omicron variant spreads around the world. Consultants FGE estimate that Germany’s new restrictions alone could hit demand for refined products by 200,000 barrels a day. 

Futures rose 2.3% to $68.05 per barrel by 6:15 am ET. They were also up 2.4% to $71.39 per barrel at 7:39 AM ET. Baker Hughes will release its rig count as well as CFTC positioning data later.

Other commodities saw wheat prices continue to rise after severe rains in Australia threatened their harvest. These were in addition drought-related shortages experienced earlier in the year in America and Russia.