“While the severity of the new variant remains a big uncertainty, it casts a shadow over demand growth in the near future and further complicates the supply chain,” said ING analyst Wenyu Yao.
The World Health Organisation warned that deciding the severity level of the omicron variant could take “days to several weeks” in the absence of information that its symptoms differed from those of other variants.
CHART: Dwindling copper, zinc, nickel stocks could shield prices from omicron impact
Drugmaker Moderna’s chief said on Tuesday that existing covid-19 vaccines would be less effective against the Omicron variant than they have been against the Delta variant.
China’s factory activity, however, picked up in November, growing for the first time in three months as raw material prices fell and power rationing abated.
(With files from Reuters)
