The Brazilian Stock Exchange was losing steam on the morning of Tuesday (30), following the fall of the markets in Europe and the United States, after a new alarm about the risks of the new variant of the coronavirus. Asia’s main stock exchanges closed in decline.
After the previous day’s partial recovery, markets started the day shaken by the statement by the president of the pharmaceutical company Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, on the possibility that the existing Covid-19 vaccines are not as effective against the omicron variant as they are against the delta .
“There is no world, I think, where [a eficácia] it is on the same level as we had with delta,” Bancel told the Financial Times newspaper.
At 11:58 am, the Ibovespa, a benchmark for the Brazilian stock exchange, dropped 0.37%, to 102,436 points. The index had already reached the low of 102,012 points at 10:33 am. The dollar fell 0.32%, to R$ 5.5950.
In the United States, the S&P 500 benchmark yielded 0.71%. The Dow Jones lost 0.95%, while the Nasdaq retreated 0.11%.
In Europe, the London, Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges fell 0.37%, 0.31% and 0.35%, respectively. The Euro Stoxx 50 index, which tracks 50 of the region’s top companies, lost 0.54%.
In Asia, the Tokyo and Hong Kong stock exchanges closed down 1.63% and 1.58%, respectively. The index for Chinese companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen dropped 0.40%.
At the Chinese port of Qingdao, iron ore sold in cash fell 5.43%. Commodity futures contracts rose 0.81%, recovering from a low in the early hours of the day.
Brent oil, a world reference, had a devaluation of 3.59%, at US$ 70.80 (R$ 397.27) a barrel.
Despite the fanfare generated by the statement by the president of Moderna, health authorities stressed that, for now, there is no reason to panic.
Emer Cooke, executive director of the European Medicines Agency, told the European Parliament that even as the new variant becomes more widespread, current vaccines will continue to provide protection.
Andrea Ammon, who chairs the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said 42 cases of the strain have been confirmed in 10 European countries. There were six other “possible” cases.
She said the cases seen were mild or asymptomatic, although in younger age groups.
Moderna did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters, nor did it say when it expected data on the effectiveness of its omicron vaccine.
News of the emergence of the new variant pulled nearly $2 trillion (£11.2 trillion) out of global equities on Friday, after the variant was identified in southern Africa and announced on November 25th.
WHO and scientists also say it could take weeks to understand whether omicrons can cause serious illness or evade protection against vaccine-induced immunity.
“The vaccination will probably still keep you out of the hospital,” said John Wherry, director of the Penn Institute of Immunology in Philadelphia, USA.
Moderna and pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Johnson are working on vaccines that specifically target omicron in case their current immunizers are not effective against it. Moderna has also been testing a higher dose of its existing vaccine.
with Reuters
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