Omicron wreaking havoc and reaping returns

It?s a tale of two Omicrons.

Omicron, the new variant of COVID-19, has revived investor concerns that the travel sector could be among the worst-hit industries and airline stocks around the world are tanking hard.

Australia?s largest airline Qantas (ASX:QAN), for example, was trading as much as A$5.85 last month and is today (December 2) trading at A$4.95.

Airline stocks across the board are sinking amid a broader market selloff.

Then there is Omicron (OMIC), the relatively lesser known cryptocurrency token, which by some reports is named after the Greek letter Omicron, and has had a price surge of more than 10 times in the past few days.

Omicron?s price has settled at just over US$406 but its price has galloped from US$64 on November 27 to US$692 on November 29.

In those two days, it outperformed other major digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, coinciding with the World Health Organization (WHO) naming the latest COVID-19 variant of concern Omicron.

The crypto currently has a market capitalization of more than US$405 million, while compared to Qantas, which has a market cap of A$9.33bn.