November 26, 2021

Markets:

U.S. stock futures dropped on Friday on renewed Covid fears over a new variant found in South Africa.  Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 817 points, or 2.3%. S&P 500 futures lost 1.8% and Nasdaq 100 futures shed 1%. Friday is a shortened trading day because of the Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. markets closing at 1 p.m. ET.

The downward moves came after WHO officials on Thursday warned of a new Covid-19 variant that’s been detected in South Africa. The new variant contains more mutations to the spike protein, the component of the virus that binds to cells, than the highly contagious Delta variant. Because of these mutations, scientists fear it could have increased resistance to vaccines, though WHO said further investigation is needed.

The United Kingdom temporarily suspended flights from six African countries due to the variant. Israel barred travel to several nations after reporting one case in a traveler. Two cases were identified in Hong Kong.

Bond prices rose and yields tumbled amid a flight to safety. The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell 13 basis points to 1.511% (1 basis point equals 0.01%). This was a sharp reversal as yields jumped earlier in the week to above 1.68% at one point. Bond yields move inversely to prices.

Oil prices also tumbled, with U.S. crude futures down 6.2% to $73.57 per barrel, while the South African rand weakened 1.7% against the greenback to 16.231 per dollar.

Portfolio:

We hope you all enjoyed a great Thanksgiving for those in the U.S..  We enter today's session holding positions in TWTR, VALE, SKLZ, APPS, CHPT, and F.  New of a new variant being found called "Nu" is driving the price activity this morning.  The odd part is, experts have been warning us for months of a potential new variant but yet we are still acting this morning as if we are in panic mode.  Keep the following in mind; volume is super light.  The Q's have a great chance at being green by the closing bell today.  They pushed the theme at the start of the week away from tech and growth; well, here we are and look what's back in play now for easily the coming weeks and months.  As we reminded you, allow the next stage of opportunity to develop and we will patiently wait and jump all over it.

Right now, no changes needed for our holdings.  Although today is a shortened session, could be a bit of a busy one for us.  We do want to watch price activity and volume today.  Please be ready today and let's have a great session.