US equity markets declined to cap a week in which several major central banks acknowledged the threat posed by high inflation, while the Omicron coronavirus variant continued to weigh on sentiment - Dow down -532-points or -1.48% to 35,365.44, touching an intra-session low of about 35,284. It marked the index’s worst single session decline since 30 November. The S&P500 fell -1.03% to 4,620.64, touching an intra-session low of ~4,600 and the broader index’s steepest daily decline since 1 December. Financials (down -2.27%) and Energy (-2.24%) both fell over >25 to lead all eleven primary sectors lower. The Nasdaq dipped -0.07% to settle at 15,169.68, recovering from a session low of ~14,960 (down ~1.5%). Microsoft Corp dipped -0.3%, extending its weekly decline to nearly 5.5%. Google parent Alphabet Inc (down -1.41%) and Apple Inc (-0.65%) both fell more than >4% last week. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 gained +1.0%. Friday’s (17 December) session was ‘quadruple witching’, the simultaneous expiration of single-stock options, single-stock futures, and stock-index options and stock-futures, and end of quarter fund rebalancing. US equity and bond markets are closed on Friday night AEST (24 December) in observance of Christmas.
