on monday morning in asia us stockindex futures rose suggesting us markets could open higher later in the day emini sp futures were up 08 while futures tied to the dow were 06 higher on friday stocks oil prices and governmentbond yields slumped after south africa raised the alarm over a fastspreading strain of the coronavirus triggering concern that travel restrictions and other curbs will spoil the global economys recovery the dow jones industrial average fell 90504 points or 25 to 3489934 it was the dows biggest oneday percentage drop since october 2020 the sp 500 lost 10684 points or 23 to 459462 and the nasdaq composite dropped 35357 points or 22 to 1549166 it was the worst black friday session on record for all three indexes markets closed early because of the holiday japanese stocks are lower dragged by falls in auto energy and airline stocks as concerns grow about the omicron variant and new travel restrictions and other containment measures nissan motor falls 43 and tokyo disney resortoperator oriental land is 42 lower meanwhile some game and tech stocks are higher nintendo gains 26 and lasertec is 14 higher investors are paying attention to any developments over covid19 containment measures in japan and elsewhere the nikkei stock average is 09 lower at 2848499 south koreas kospi index fell 05 to 292336 as concerns of the spread of the highly infectious omicron coronavirus variant weighed on sentiment travelrelated stocks slumped with korean air lines down 61 and samsung ct corp which operates south koreas everland theme park 23 lower index heavyweight samsung electronics fell 07 hong kongs hang seng index was 01 higher at 2410908 after opening lower as gains in pharmaceutical stocks outweighed losses in bank stocks sentiment was being supported by a global effort among drug companies to assess the danger and potential impact of the coronaviruss new omicron variant sino biopharmaceutical gained 34 and wuxi biologics was 28 higher however concerns over the new variant were weighing on financial stocks boc hong kong and china merchants bank were each 02 lower while hang seng bank slipped 05 chinese stocks were broadly lower in early trade amid fears over that the emergence of a new covid variant could spark a global wave of infections the shanghai composite index fell 08 to 353561 the shenzhen composite index dropped 06 to 249313 while the chinext price index gained 08 to 349472 auto stocks were among the worst performers amid concerns over how the new variant may hurt demand the emergence of the omicron variant would dominate focus particularly for cny assets as chinas border was largely closed to foreigners and its dynamic zerocovid strategy was still in place ocbc said usdjpy recouped some of big losses marked on friday due to concerns about the emerging omicron variant of covid19 and new travel restrictions the markets focus remains on any reports on whether existing covid19 vaccines are effective against the omicron variant ig said usdjpy may rise back toward 115 this week if reports suggest effectiveness ig said the pair was recently at 11369 compared with 11336 late friday in new york audusd could remain heavy and volatile this week and it would not take much negative news about the omicron variant to push the pair below 07000 commonwealth bank said the pair was recently trading around 07140 but the aud could fall as low as 06758 before yearend if the news about omicron is negative the bank added australias 3q gdp data due wednesday was unlikely to have a material impact on aud because the data is dated economists expect a 26 onquarter contraction in growth cba has penciled in a 35 contraction due to widespread lockdowns the malaysian ringgit may continue to weaken this week to around 425 against the us dollar as renewed covid19 concerns trigger a global riskoff mood kenanga research said the ringgit breached 420 against the us dollar last week for the first time in three months amid weakening oil prices and a stronger us dollar usdmyr was recently 01 lower at 42385 gold was slightly higher in early asian trade supported by safehaven demand amid worries surrounding the global spread of the omicron variant anz said traders were also likely focusing on the timing of an expected interest rate increase by the federal reserve which could be delayed due to the virus woes it added spot gold was 01 higher at 179264oz oil gained in early asian trade after dropping sharply in fridays session as news of the highly contagious omicron variant spooked markets goldman sachs thinks the selloff looks overdone given that mobility restrictions would likely only lower global oil demand by 05 million barrels a day excluding jet fuel the investment bank would continue to focus on further developments on the spread of the omicron variant before changing its supply and demand forecasts frontmonth wti crude rose 54 to 7180bbl frontmonth brent crude added 47 to 7611bbl