london nov 26 reuters  global stocks tumbled on friday and oil fell below 80 a barrel after news of a possibly vaccineresistant coronavirus variant sent investors scurrying to the safety of bonds the yen and the swiss franc little is known of the variant detected in south africa botswana and hong kong but scientists say it has an unusual combination of mutations may be able to evade immune responses and could be more transmissible read more british authorities think it is the most significant variant to date and have hurried to impose travel restrictions on southern africa as did japan the czech republic and italy on friday read more nl8n2sh1hs the european union also said it aimed to halt air travel from the region markets have been quite complacent about the pandemic for a while partly because economies have been able to withstand the impact of selective lockdown measures but we can see from the new emergency brakes on air travel that there will be ramifications for the price of oil said chris scicluna head of economic research at daiwa the world health organization is convening an experts meeting later on friday to evaluate whether the new variant is a variant of concern read more global shares miwd00000pus fell 08 and were on course for their worst week since early october european stocks stoxx plunged 27 on track for their worst day since september 2020 with travel and leisure stocks particularly badly hit germanys dax gdaxi sank 3 and britains ftse 100 ftse fell 27 to its lowest in more than a month mscis index of asian shares outside japan miapj0000pus fell 22 its sharpest drop since august casino and beverage shares were hammered in hong kong while travel stocks dropped in sydney and tokyo japans nikkei n225 skidded 25 and sp 500 futures were last down 18 giles coghlan chief currency analyst at hycm a brokerage said the closure of the us market for the thanksgiving holiday on thursday had exacerbated moves we need to see how transmissible this variant is is it able to evade the vaccines  this is crucial coghlan said i expect this story to drag on for a few days until scientists have a better understanding of it oil prices slid with us crude futures down 57 to 7396 a barrel and brent crude down 466 to 7838 amid fresh demand fears as investors dashed for safehaven assets the yen jumped more than 1 to around 113 per dollar having languished earlier this week at fiveyear lows the euro rose 04 to 11251 as safety rather than policy differentials drove trade the single currency however fell to near 612 year lows against the swiss franc at 1044 francs per euro you shoot first and ask questions later when this sort of news erupts said ray attrill head of fx strategy at national australia bank in sydney south africas rand fell 2 to a oneyear low and its 2030 bond yield soared 255 basis points bps bond yields move inversely to price other bond markets strengthened benefiting from their safe haven status tenyear treasury yields fell 11 bps to 15277 and 30year yields were down 9 bps to 18777 germanys 10year bond yield was down 62 bps at 031 the market swings come against a backdrop of already growing concern about covid19 outbreaks driving restrictions on movement and activity in europe and beyond european countries have expanded covid19 booster vaccinations and tightened curbs slovakia announced a twoweek lockdown the czech government will shut bars early and germany crossed the threshold of 100000 covid19related deaths read more i dont think theres any going back to the precovid19 world said mark arnold chief investment officer at hyperion asset management in brisbane were just going to get mutations through time and thats going to change the way people operate in the economy thats just reality