Reuters
Omicron vaccine warning triggers fresh global selloff
There was a fall in world share markets and scramble to safer currencies and bonds on Tuesday after the CEO of drugmaker Moderna warned that COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the new Omicron variant. Europe’s main bourses jolted 1.4% lower early on, oil shed 3%, Australia’s currency which is highly sensitive to global economic confidence hit a year low while Japan’s safe-haven yen, German government bonds and gold all rose. “There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level,” Moderna’s chief Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview.