COVID-19 is back on top of the agenda as investors fear that the new Omicron variant could stall the global economic recovery from the nearly two-year pandemic.

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Here are the top picks to watch in this week’s markets.

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1.  Uncertainty rise amid new variant

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While little is yet known about the new omicron Covid variant first detected in South Africa, Wall Street’s three primary indices tumbled on Friday as they re-opened after Thursday’s Thanksgiving.

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Scientists raised concerns that omicron might be vaccine-resistant and more easily transmissible than the Delta variant due to its high number of mutations.

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Previously, investors had been upbeat about economic recovery amid broad vaccine availability and advances in treatments, despite fears over steadily rising inflation.

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2.  Oil price plunges

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On Friday, Oil prices witnessed their greatest one-day decline since April 2020, plunging $10 a barrel. The dive occurred as news of the new Omicron variant saw countries rushing to enforce new travel restrictions adding to oversupply in the first quarter.

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PVM analyst Tamas Varga said that OPEC’s (The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies) initial assessment to release a stockpile of 400,000 barrels per day and the sudden appearance of a new covid variant raises serious concern about economic growth and the oil balance in the coming months.

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3.  Meta stock potential in 2022

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The metaverse remains a red-hot space as investors of all colors jump on anything metaverse-related.

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The crypto and NFT space have also adopted the metaverse as its next vertical, and Meta’s size and ability to scale into this space are thus noteworthy.

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Free cash flow for Meta is currently around $9.5 billion after the company reported Q3 revenue results up 33%, a record for Meta.  This makes for a rather attractive valuation multiple and makes the stock bullish when investors look at free cash flow metrics and consider a long-term perspective.

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4.  Bitcoin remains the favorite crypto

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On Friday, PlanB in Bitcoin tweeted a skyrocketing price of $98k in 4 days, bringing the crypto world back on its feet. Moreover, the king of crypto assets continually performs aggressively in the crypto space with a market cap of over $2.5 trillion.

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Bitcoin traded bullish on Saturday of over $55k with a growth rate of +200% in the past 12 months. The market capitalization of over $1 trillion makes the cryptocurrency a firm favorite among global investors and enables Bitcoin to be the number one crypto asset.

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5.  Tesla fourth-quarter earnings outlook

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In a recent email, Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned employees not to spend irresponsibly in the final weeks of the year as he aims to minimize the cost of fourth-quarter deliveries.

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Breaking the pattern of big end-of-quarter deliveries could cause unwanted stock volatility when fourth-quarter deliveries are reported early next year while investors are looking for big numbers and earnings.

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Tesla stock is up about 53% year to date, coming into Monday trading, better than the 22% and 14% comparable.

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