U.S. stocks seesawed in a choppy trading session as investors attempted to shake off worries about the Omicron variant and the unwinding of Federal Reserve stimulus.
All three major U.S. indexes rallied early in Wednesday’s session as they attempted to rebound from the post-Thanksgiving selloff that has dragged stocks lower in recent days. But the recovery lost steam in the afternoon after reports that new Covid-19 infections nearly doubled in South Africa Wednesday and that a case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant was identified in California. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the person was a traveler who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22.