CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he was uncomfortable shopping in the early stock market boom on Monday after Friday’s omicron-fueled slump as sales could resume in the event of future negative news about the heavily mutated variant of Covid.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average – which rose nearly 400 points, or more than 1%, shortly after Wall Street opened – gave up on some of those gains. However, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq held onto most of their early trading gains, gaining around 1% and nearly 1.5%, respectively. All three stock benchmarks fell more than 2% on Friday and ended lower last week.
Speaking on Squawk on the Street ahead of Monday’s opening, Cramer said he is betting on science, including future reformulated Covid vaccines and promising new oral treatments to mitigate the effects of Omicron.
“I come back as confident. Not today. Because you run up the market and the same people buy today, when they see someone who has landed in the US and has the omicron variant,” They’ll say, ‘I have to sell’ “said the moderator of” Mad Money “.” We have to beware of stupid salespeople. “
No Omicron cases have been found in the United States. However, infections have been found in South Africa, where the variant was originally identified, as well as in the UK, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Australia and Hong Kong.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC that he believes Omicron has a presence in most of the countries. “I believe that most of the countries that have had direct flights from South Africa in the past seven to 10 days already have cases in their country that they may not be aware of.”
Albert Bourla, CEO of Bancel and Pfizer, said in separate “Squawk Box” interviews Monday that their companies are working on Omicron versions of their vaccines in hopes of bringing them out next year.
Bourla said he expected Pfizer’s Covid treatment pill to be effective against the Omicron variant. He added that the company now expects to manufacture 80 million courses of the pill, an increase from its original manufacturing target of 50 million courses.
Merck is also working on a Covid pill.
“You listen to Bourla and Bancel … and you come back and say, ‘Look, you have to rely on these guys.’ You know the science, “said Cramer. “What that can mean is that these people are solving it,” and then when investors sell, “you have to buy back a lot higher.”
