Omicron hangs over the oil market; plus, the hottest electric vehicles aren't cars

Economy

Published: December 7, 2021 10:46 am

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Turns out a few cases of Omicron did what President Joe Biden and other Western leaders haven’t been able to for three months: take down oil prices.

Last week’s global scare from the new variant, reportedly out of South Africa, turned stock markets upside down, but also caused oil prices to fall 15% from their highs above $80 a barrel. It helped that OPEC also decided to keep raising oil production, in an early bet that Omicron won’t be the world destroyer it was first feared to be.

Oil prices were back up 3% Monday morning in New York, and the stock market rallied in tandem. While we’re still a week away from any definitive analysis on the danger of Omicron, the lack of worse news over the weekend . . . .

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