Markets fall as Moderna chief predicts existing Covid vaccines will struggle with Omicron – business live

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The oil price has dropped to its lowest level since mid-September, on renewed worries that Omicron could slow the global recovery.

Brent crude is down 2.8% at $71.40 per barrel, an 11-week low. It plunged over 10% on Friday, when concerns about the variant first hit markets, before stabilising yesterday.

Cautious positivity soon gave way to pessimism in late Asia trading on comments from the Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel to the FT, who predicted existing vaccines would struggle with the Omicron variant and who warned it would take months for pharmaceutical companies to manufacture enough jabs at a sufficient scale to make a difference.

His tone contrasts with the likes of Pfizer and BioNTech was suggested any new vaccine would be able to modified fairly quickly. His rather candid comments have also seen oil prices slide back sharply, as an increasingly jittery market react with concern to the prospects of further restrictions and lower demand.

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