The Omikron strain seizes Europe, threatens a new wave of US deaths and drops markets and oil The markets are again captured by the news about the strain "Omicron". Messages about the introduction of new Locks in Europe and the growth of the number of those sick with Omcron became the reason for a large sale, first in Asia, and then in the United States.

Oil and gas company Zoltav Resources Inc. will delist from the London Stock Exchange. This is stated in the message on the information disclosure portal. It notes that since 2011 the company has been trading on the alternative investment section of the London Stock Exchange (AIM). The purpose of entering the stock exchange was to attract funds from foreign investors.

Despite stubbornly high COVID-19 death rates and the emergence of the Omicron variant, the Russian authorities remain unwilling to introduce unpopular restrictions. The government has proposed several new laws that would make life difficult for the unvaccinated, but it’s not clear if they will ever be passed.

Former opposition deputy Sergei Petrov sold his Rolf car dealership to a competitor last Monday amid a long-running criminal case. The value of the deal (likely between $300 million and $500 million) was far less than the real value of Russia’s largest car dealership. Rolf was sold to a competitor, Klyuchavto, the fourth largest car dealership on the Russian market with annual profits of $1.5 billion (compared to Rolf’s $3.5 billion).

Putin’s annual meeting earlier this month with members of Russia’s Human Rights Council led to an unexpected conflict. Prominent movie director Alexander Sokurov, who is known for his ties to Putin, unexpectedly suggested the president think about “letting go” of republics in the North Caucasus that do not wish to be a part of Russia. Putin responded by scolding Sokurov. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov also reacted with anger. When Sokurov began to receive threats, he publicly apologized.

The new strain of coronavirus "omicron" is spreading faster than "delta" and infects those vaccinated against covid and those who have recovered. This was stated by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “There is now strong evidence that the omicron is spreading much faster than the delta. And it is more likely that people who are vaccinated or recovered from covid may be infected or re-infected, ”he said ( quoted by Reuters).

JPMorgan, whose team of analysts was recently recognized as the best in the United States in the United States by edition of Institional Investor, released one of the most optimistic forecasts for markets for 2022. Following the Strategies of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, we found this report. JPMorgan analysts predict that the 2022nd will become the year of the actual ending of the pandemic, and expect from the markets even more moderate than in the past year, but still good growth.

The EU regulator, the European Medical Agency (EMA), has approved the American coronavirus vaccine Nuvaxovid, according to its website. This will be the fifth drug approved in the EU. “After a thorough review, the EMA Commission on Medicinal Products for Human Use has reached a consensus that the data on the vaccine are reliable and meet the EU criteria for efficacy, safety and quality,” the regulator notes.

Today, the work of small and medium -sized entrepreneurs can analyze, create algorithms and, thanks to this, offer them a suitable advertising product. Yandex.Business chooses which strategy will be effective for a particular business - for example, coffee shops, beauty salon, car service, private courses.

The richest man in the world, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk will pay more than $11 billion in taxes for 2021. He himself wrote about this on Twitter. “For those who are interested, this year I will pay more than $11 billion in taxes,” he stressed. He did not provide details. Last week, Musk got into a tax dispute with Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The organizing committee of the World Economic Forum in Davos said that the event, scheduled for January 2022, is being postponed "in light of the ongoing uncertainty over the spread of the omicron strain." The summit, scheduled for January 17-21, will now tentatively take place in early summer 2022. In January, a series of online performances by world leaders, State of the World, will take place, the organizers write.

Gazprom booked less than a quarter of the capacities offered for transit through Poland for January and did not order additional capacity through Ukraine. This follows from the data of the GSA Platform and the Hungarian RBP trading platform, reports . RIA Novosti For January, the company booked a capacity of 19.26 million cubic meters of gas per day for transit through Poland via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline.

In the global banking market, one of the largest transactions in recent times: the European BNP Paribas is selling its US business - Bank of the West - to the Canadian Bank of Montreal. The amount of the cash transaction is $16.3 billion. The American business of BNP is more than 40 years old, now it has $89 billion in deposits, $105 billion in assets and a wide branch network in the US West, reminds The Wall Street Journal.

The Central Bank proposed to link the interest on the balance on the Mir card to the key rate for the low-income - if this happens, the rate on such accounts will be several times higher than the current values. The Bank of Russia has proposed charging citizens with low incomes interest on the balance on the Mir card just below the key rate, said Vladimir Chistyukhin, deputy chairman of the regulator.

A booster dose of the Moderna vaccine increases the number of antibodies to the Omicron strain tenfold, according to preliminary data from the company. A dose of 50 micrograms - the recommended amount for a booster - produces a 37-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies, Moderna notes. Revaccination with a full dose - 100 mcg - increases the amount of antibodies by 83 times. The company emphasizes that it continues to develop a vaccine specifically designed to combat "omicron".