New York Stocks Plummet Due to Concerns about Delta Variant

The stock exchanges in New York started the new trading week with significant price losses on Monday after red figures were already visible on Friday. In addition, falling oil prices are creating headwinds in the oil sector.

 

Companies that depend on tourism have had to pay for it. Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines lost up to 4.2 percent. Cruise lines Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line were down 5.1 percent. But the financial sector also struggled, with negatives for significant banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America up to 3.5 percent. In addition, machine builder Caterpillar and aircraft manufacturer Boeing lost up to 3.6 percent.

Oil funds were under pressure due to an agreement between oil cartel OPEC and its allies on a production increase, which caused oil prices to fall sharply. As a result, major oil and gas producers such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Petroleum fell to 3.3 percent. In addition, oil service providers such as Halliburton, Schlumberger and Apache had to give up to 5 percent.

The Dow-Jones index was down 1.4 percent after about 10 minutes of trading at 34,190 points. The broad S&P 500 fell 1.3 percent to 4270.03 points, and the technology exchange Nasdaq lost 1.4 percent to 14,222 points.

Zoom Video Communications was also in the spotlight with a minus of 3.2 percent. The online meeting service is acquiring the company Five9, which is active in call centre services via the internet, for 14.7 billion dollars. Zoom’s largest-ever acquisition should help the company become even more competitive in-home and remote work services. The takeover will be settled entirely in shares. Five9 stock gained 4.7 percent.

Pershing Square Tontine Holdings also received attention. The empty shell of American billionaire Bill Ackman is not taking a 10 percent stake in Universal Music Group (UMG), the music label behind pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, after resistance from shareholders and regulators. Instead, Ackman now wants to purchase his investment fund Pershing Square Holdings (minus 4.6 percent).