Amid a worldwide surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Wall Street began the week of Christmas in a slump. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq composite were all down roughly 1.8% at various points Monday. Oil producers were some of the biggest losers Monday. U.S. crude fell 6% on…

Update (Dec. 21, 2021): Two days after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he couldn’t vote for the Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden made his first public comments on the matter Tuesday. President Biden joked that he holds no grudges against Sen. Manchin, and that the two “are going to get something done.” “I want…

In the same week that the Biden administration signaled student loan payments would resume for 41 million Americans in February, negotiations also faltered for payments to migrants separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in the litigation over the migrant policy, announced the development Thursday and said the group…

A recent study out of South Africa indicates that the Omicron variant has a “substantial ability to evade immunity from prior infection.” Researchers do not yet have clarity on whether the Omicron variant can also evade vaccine-induced natural immunity. Natural immunity is the protection a person gains from a virus after already being infected by…

South Africa’s largest private health insurer Discovery Health teamed up with the South African Medical Research Council to release new data on the Omicron variant Tuesday. South Africa was the first country to report the variant to the World Health Organization last month. According to the data, during the country’s current Omicron-fueled surge in cases:…

Months after becoming the biggest names in the “meme stock” movement, fueled in part by Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets, shares for video game retailer GameStop and theater chain AMC continued to drop in value Tuesday. As of late Tuesday morning, AMC was on track for a fourth straight day of losses, dropping 8% to a new 7-month low…

Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC approved Pfizer boosters for kids 16 and 17 years old Thursday, a day after the Senate blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses employing 100 or more workers. The FDA and CDC moves serve as the first to…

A day after a federal judge blocked President Joe Biden’s federal contractor COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Pfizer released data regarding the effectiveness of the company’s vaccine on fighting the Omicron variant. According to a news release from Pfizer, the data showed that while three doses of the vaccine, “neutralize the Omicron variant”, people who only got…

The Omicron variant is the latest challenge facing the Biden Administration’s pandemic response. The first cases were identified in South Africa, but the variant has since spread to more than 25 countries, including the U.S. However, President Biden’s travel ban only applies to eight African countries. The restrictions have been met with criticism. South African President Cyril…

Bitcoin dropped by almost 5% on Monday after a bruising weekend when, at one point, it lost over a fifth of its value. It’s now trading at roughly $49,200, down from about $57,000 at the beginning of December. Traders said the fall was connected to a broad move away from riskier assets in traditional markets…