US crude oil prices fell by about 10 per cent per on Friday as global concerns grow over the Nu COVID variant and Joe Biden imposed new travel bans.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the US oil benchmark, dropped $68.85 per barrel on Friday after soaring to near historic heights in recent weeks.
It had begun the day at around $77 dollars.
The sudden drop in oil prices came as the Dow Jones Industrial Average reported a 1,000 point drop, or about 2.5 per cent decrease, the worst drop of the year. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both reported a drop of 2.2 per cent.
The blow to the national economy arrived as the World Health Organization warned of the 'most infectious' variant of COVID-19 yet, named Nu or Omicron, in South Africa.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures serves as the benchmark for US oil prices. The cost per barrel dropped by about 10 per cent on Friday
The Dow Jones tumbled on Friday morning by more than 1000 points
There are no recorded cases of the variant in the US yet.
Most of the warnings are coming from the UK, where an unnamed senior expert from the Health Security Agency, the British COVID authority, has described the variant as 'the worst we have seen yet.'
The US has banned travel to South Africa and seven other neighboring countries after European nations began imposing travel restrictions, and travel and aerospace shares took a blow.
Canada has also done the same, banning anyone who has visited any of the eight countries in the past 14 days from crossing its borders.
Boeing reported more than a 6 per cent drop Friday afternoon, and Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, the only US carriers who had services schedule to and from South Africa, also took a dramatic hit, CNBC reported.
Delta's stock dropped by more than 10 per cent and United fell by 11 per cent. American Airlines also fell by nearly 10 per cent.
United had 87 nonstop flights to South Africa scheduled for December, and Delta had 35 set up.
Boeing's stock fell by more than 6 per cent while American Airlines tumbled by nearly 10
