Your Weekend Reading: Market Mayhem Just In Time for the Holidays

Market mayhem welcomed investors back from the Thanksgiving holiday as a new coronavirus variant was identified in South Africa. A top U.K. adviser warned that it’s the most worrying mutation yet. As concern swirls around the prospect of renewed travel restrictions and lockdowns in Europe, pressure is building to critical levels in America. In some states, the willfully unvaccinated are buckling some healthcare systems, endangering non-Covid patients in need of care. But the vaccinated aren’t out of the woods: Rich nations appear to have been lulled into a false sense of security.

Jamie Dimon dined on crow for Thanksgiving after realizing Beijing might not share his sense of humor about the Chinese Communist Party’s longevity. His expression of regret less than 24 hours after cracking a joke shows the power China wields over even the biggest businesses. But, as Tim Culpan explains in Bloomberg Opinion, it was the JPMorgan CEO’s comment about Taiwan that was more on point.