The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down about 2.3 per cent. The three major U.S. markets—the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed down about 2.5 per cent; the S&P 500, down 2.3 per cent; and the Nasdaq Composite, down 2.2 per cent during the trading day—recorded their worst Black Friday performance going as far back as 1950. (The Logic, The Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: U.S. crude oil dropped roughly 12 per cent to US$69.17, while the loonie fell to a nearly two-month low. The sell-off comes after South African scientists identified a new COVID-19 variant that appears to have about 30 mutations, and which they believe spiked infections in the country’s most populous province. The World Health Organization recognized the strain as a variant of concern, naming it Omicron. “The market’s reaction seems a little excessive,” Scotiabank strategists said, noting the pandemic is not yet contained and it’s unclear if this variant poses a greater threat. “But investors are prone to shoot first and ask questions later and not stand in the way of these sorts of position-unwinds.”