Just when it looked like the current week would fizzle out on a negative note for rates, our least favorite market mover is back in the news. B.1.1.529 (designated now as “Omicron”), a new covid variant hit the market like a ton of bricks on Friday morning. 48 hours earlier, Google had never heard of it. Search interest began to ramp up on Thanksgiving Day. By Friday, it’s an utterly pervasive headline. With financial markets closed for Thanksgiving, there was an abrupt reaction upon reopening for the half-day on Friday. This augmented other moves that were already in progress, like the recent decline in oil prices and the outperformance of European bonds. Both are positive indicators for US rates as long as they keep doing what they’re doing. Some of the recent economic data, such as the Consumer
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