Wall Street considers COVID-19 Delta variant as return to office looms

As the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its worst day since October last year on pandemic fears, FOX Business has learned that senior executives at major banks are closely monitoring the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant and its impact. on plans to reopen. offices especially in large urban areas such as New York City.

People at banks such as JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs say they haven’t made any changes to their plans to reopen so far. JPMorgan and Goldman have previously told employees to start returning to the office after about a year of working from home during the worst of the pandemic. While Morgan Stanley said he expects employees to return to the office after Labor Day.

Teleprinter	security	Last	Switch	Switch %
JPM	JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.	146.97	-4.94	-3.25%
SG	THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC.	354.72	-10.08	-2.76%
MRS	MORGAN STANLEY	89.35	-1.90	-2.08%

Hope for a return to normal is expected, as the efficacy of new COVID-19 vaccines has been well telegraphed, but the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, and a few growing “groundbreaking” cases of people vaccinated testing positive for the virus, caused senior bank officials to at least think about adjusting their plans for office work, members of those banks told FOX Business.

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley press officials have not commented.

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“The outlook for banks has changed due to new pandemic fears sweeping the country,” veteran banking analyst Dick Bove of Odeon Capital Group said.

Of course, Wall Street is only part of American business. Large companies have offered employees a variety of internal and hybrid work routines as the pandemic begins to wane, with some tech companies allowing their staff to continue working from home, and others requiring them to return to the office for a few days a week.

Additionally, the spread of the Delta variant may not present a significant challenge to the healthcare system, which was the goal of the initial business closures and the imposition of work-from-home routines. Despite the recent increase in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID are still significantly below their January peak.

The vast majority of Delta variant COVID hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. Almost half of the American population is now vaccinated, and many more have some form of immunity because they have been infected with the virus. The Biden administration is promoting an even bigger push for vaccines, especially in rural communities.

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But Wall Street CEOs and their senior executives are closely monitoring Delta’s spread and whether any groundbreaking cases could manifest as a bigger health problem. US stocks fell on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite posting the worst session since May, while the Dow Jones’ 726 point drop was the worst of 2021. The selloff rekindled fears of a resurgence in market closures. ‘companies like the first days of the pandemic.

Business closures, especially in large urban areas such as New York and Los Angeles, resulted in a short but significant recession last year and trillions of dollars in fiscal and monetary support to support the U.S. economy. .

Wall Street executives interviewed by FOX Business say big companies are prepared to delay reopening if COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths start to increase significantly.

“We are closely following what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says about variants and we have no problem pivoting if we have to,” said a senior executive at a major bank.