Dow falls over 800 points ahead of Black Friday

U.S. stock futures fell on Friday as investors reacted to a new variant of COVID 19 in South Africa.

Dow Jones futures fell over 800 points or 2.4%, while S&P and Nasdaq futures fell over 1% ahead of the 1 pm ET early in the day. Due to the holiday, volume is expected to be light, which could cause more volatility.

Oil fell to the $73 per barrel level. The report that OPEC is considering a shift after President Biden's tapping of Strategic Petroleum Reserves saw additional pressure on Crude.

Some European countries have tightened anti-virus controls this week after their own case numbers spiked. Austria imposed a 10 day lock down, while Italy restricted activity for unvaccinated people. Americans were advised by their government to avoid Germany and Denmark.

The 27 nation EU proposed a travel suspension for member governments after South Africa said the variant was spreading in its most populous province. Britain banned flights from South Africa and five nearby countries.

The rash rise in COVID 19 cases has been blamed for a new virus variant, according to a meeting held Friday.

Vaccine makers will be in focus as investors assess the latest strain of COVID.

There is a chance that travel stocks, hotels, cruise lines, and airlines, will be under pressure due to rising fears of a lock-down.

Stay-at- home stocks, such as Zoom, Peloton and Netflix, may see some positive action.

With Black Friday underway, investors will keep an eye on retail stocks as early sales data rolls in. Online spending was on pace to hit $5.4B as of Thursday, as tracked by Abode.

Consumers were racked up over $72 billion from Nov. 1 -- 23 a nearly 20% jump from the same period a year ago.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined to 28,751. The Hang Seng fell 2.7% to 24,080 in Hong Kong. The Kospi in Seoul lost 1.5% to 2,936. 44 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 fell 1.7% to 7,279.