MNI: Asian Markets Remain Skittish Monday On Covid Variant

Early Asian markets trended weaker on Monday and the safe-haven U.S. dollar was in favour on uncertainty about a new variant of Covid-19 out of South Africa dubbed Omicron that led several countries to tighten border controls and sent global markets sharply lower last week.

Nikkei equity futures fell more than 2%, with Australia and Hong Kong down more than 1% ahead of Monday trade. The S&P 500 slumped on Friday and Brent crude oil eased more than 10%. Yields on U.S. Treasuries tumbled the most since March 2020.

But the USD gained against the yen and euro in early trading on Monday in Sydney.

At the weekend, the World Health Organization called for caution after two South African health experts, including the doctor who first sounded the alarm about the omicron variant, indicated that symptoms linked to the coronavirus strain have been mild so far, according to news reports.

"Understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks," WHO said in a statement. "There is, currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with omicron are different from those from other variants."