Ever since the announcement of Omicron last week, markets have been experiencing more volatility. At first, it seemed scary on Thanksgiving when news break of the high number of mutations. but now it’s turning out to be a milder version of Delta. Us retail investors are thinking, “why panic over a COVID variant now all of a sudden?”. Delta wasn’t a big deal, why do markets care now?

Maybe it’s because Omicron presents the idea that COVID is officially over and it’ll now be similar to a endemic flu. Omicron is turning out to have very mild symptoms while being highly transmissible. This may be the variant we’ve been waiting for to make COVID-19 a thing of the past. As we know, the FED has had a huge impact on markets the past few years. Omicron signals that the FED no longer has an excuse for QE or money printing. Markets are forward-looking and maybe investors view this as the final block to closing up the COVID-19 chapter in 2022. Now tapering and raising rates are coming closer and closer to reality…