The Omicron COVID-19 variant could actually boost the US markets if its symptoms end up being mild: analyst

• Investor Bill Ackman said the Omicron variant could give the US market a boost if symptoms are mild.
• The doctor who first reported the strain said she saw “extremely mild” symptoms in her patients.
• Much is still not known about the new variant, which the WHO says poses a high risk globally.

The new Omicron variant may boost the US stock market, said analyst and investor Bill Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management.

In a tweet on Sunday evening, Ackman wrote: “A thought. While it is too early to have definitive data, early reported data suggest that the Omicron virus causes ‘mild to moderate’ symptoms (less severity) and is more transmissible. If this turns out to be true, this is bullish not bearish for markets.” 

Ackman added in a separate tweet that he thought it would likely be bullish for the equity market and bearish for the bond market. 

According to a report by CNBC, Ackman has been a voice to watch in the investment community, especially after he went on CNBC in March 2020 at the early peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, to sound a warning in the market that “hell is coming.” Ackman asked then-President Donald Trump to shut down the country for a month in an attempt to control the pandemic and save the economy. 

While it is too soon to say if Ackman will be right on this count, the Omicron variant has been causing jitters in the stock market, with futures on the Dow dropping around 400 points on Tuesday and oil sliding. 

Separately, a flash poll conducted by Deutsche Bank Research on Monday of 1,538 respondents indicated that the market was not too concerned about the new variant, with only 10% of the survey respondents indicating that they thought it would be a big deal in the markets by the end of the year. 

The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa on November 9 and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24. There is still a lot of uncertainty swirling around the variant, though, and the World Health Organization says it currently poses a very high global risk due to its potential to spread quickly and spark severe upticks in infections.

Moderna’s CEO has also voiced his concern about the efficacy of the current crop of vaccines in fighting Omicron, as opposed to how effective they were against the Delta variant, saying that he thought there was going to be a “material drop” in efficacy.

However, the South African doctor who first reported the variant said that the people she saw with the variant had mild symptoms and did not have a cough or lose their sense of smell or taste. 

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said this week that it is “almost a certainty” that Omicron has made its way to the US. Meanwhile, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci has warned Americans that while an Omicron case has not been detected in the US yet, with the degree of transmissibility currently seen in the variant, it “almost invariably is going to go all over.” 

Despite these fears, President Joe Biden on Monday reassured the country that the Omicron variant “is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” adding that he did not see the need for additional travel restrictions or lockdowns at the moment. 

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all adults in the US get their booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine to make sure they have as much immunity against the variant as possible.