Stocks traded sideways on Wednesday’s market open, as trading volumes drop ahead of the Christmas holidays. By 10 am ET, the DOW Jones Industrial average have creeped higher, gaining 38 points, the S&P 500 increased a modest 6 points, and the Nasdaq was up 24 points.
Investors are still looking at the pace of the spread of the Omicron variant. The concern over the pandemic will likely dominate the trading this week. So far, infections are doubling every three days.
With the virus spreading faster, more countries could impose lockdowns, hurting global growth as a result.
Markets are also sensitive to potential interest rate hikes, as shown by the drop in risk assets.
U.S. Dollar and Treasuries
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose one basis point. The dollar weakened against a basket of major currencies.
| Price | Chg. | Chg. % | |
| U.S. Dollar Index (DXY): | 96.31 | -0.18 | -0.19% |
| Yield | Change | Previous close | |
| U.S. 1 Year Treasury Bill | 0.265% | -0.005 | 0.270% |
| U.S. 5 Year Treasury Note | 1.235% | 0.016 | 1.219% |
| U.S. 10 Year Treasury Note | 1.476% | 0.015 | 1.461% |
Stocks To Watch
Shares of Tesla rose as CEO Elon Musk said he sold enough stock to meet 10%. With news that he will stop selling, investors are more bullish on the stock. Musk started selling shares in November, after holding a Twitter poll on the matter.
Travels stocks rebounded with the markets. Carnival Corp, American Airlines and Boeing all rose in premarket trading.
Shares of Pfizer were up after the company agreed to sell an additional 2.5 million doses in the U.K. However, shares of vaccine companies Merck and Novavax were up even more.
Commodities To Watch
Oil dropped on pandemic concerns. Gold rose against the dollar.
| Resource | Price | Chg. % |
| WTI Crude Oil | $71.13 | 0.01% |
| Brent Crude Oil | $73.82 | -0.22% |
| Natural Gas | $3.93 | 1.47% |
| Gold | $1,792.60 | 0.22% |
| Silver | $22.66 | 0.56% |
| Copper | $4.38 | 0.69% |
Crypto
Crypto markets were stable amid an unfavorable environment. The global crypto market cap is $2.28T, a 0.07% decrease over the last day. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 40.5%, a decrease of 0.41% over the same period.
| Currency | Symbol | Price | Chg. % | Market Cap. |
| Bitcoin | BTC | $48,762.27 | -0.31% | 921.99b |
| Etherium | ETH | $3,980.57 | -1.16% | 471.56b |
| Binance coin | BNB | $531.59 | -0.20% | 79.92b |
| Solana | SOL | $182.55 | +0.71% | 56.29b |
| Cardano | ADA | $ 1.336 | +5.92% | 41.56b |