new york wall street is joining a worldwide slump for financial markets on monday amid worries about how badly the omicron variant inflation and other forces will hit the economythe sp 500 was 18 per cent lower in midday trading following up on similar drops across europe and asia stocks of oil producers helped lead the way lower after the price of us crude fell 6 per cent on concerns the newest coronanvirus variant could lead factories airplanes and drivers to burn less fuelomicron may be the scariest force hitting markets but its not the only one a proposed 2 trillion spending program by the us government took a potential death blow over the weekend when an influential senator said he could not support it markets are also still absorbing last weeks momentous move by the federal reserve to more quickly remove the aid its throwing at the economy because of rising inflationthey all combined to drag the dow jones industrial average down 649 points or 18 per cent to 34716 as of 1112 am eastern time the nasdaq composite fell 18 per cent while germanys dax lost 19 per cent and japans nikkei 225 dropped 21 per centomicron threatens to be the grinch to rob christmas mizuho banks vishnu varathan said in a report the market prefers safety to nasty surprises with covid19 cases surging again leaders of governments around the world are weighing the return of restrictions on businesses and social interactions when many people seem to be sick of themthe dutch government began a tough nationwide lockdown on sunday while a uk official on monday said he could not guarantee new restrictions would not be announced this week the natural history museum one of londons leading attractions said monday it was closing for a week because of frontofhouse staff shortagesin the us president joe biden will announce on tuesday new steps he is taking while also issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for americans that choose to remain unvaccinated the white house press secretary said over the weekenddevon energy tumbled 69 per cent for one of the largest loss in the sp 500 leading a long list of losing oil stocks producers of raw materials and financial companies were also down sharply amid the omicron worries steelmaker nucor lost 57 per cent and synchrony financial which offers storebrand credit cards and other financial products dropped 59 per cent omicrons ultimate impact on the economy is unclearbesides weakening it by putting restrictions on businesses another feared outcome is that it could push inflation even higher if it leads to closures at ports factories and other key points of the long global supply chains leading to customers already ensnarled operations could worsensuch troubles helped drive prices at the consumer level in november up 68 per cent from a year earlier the fastest inflation in nearly four decadesbut some economists argue that omicron could have the opposite effect if the variant leads to lockdowns or