JPMorgan Strategists Say Buy the Dip as Omicron May Speed Up Pandemic's End

The emergence of the new virus strain has roiled markets in recent days, with countries around the world stepping up travel restrictions.

While some health officials said it could take weeks to reach a verdict, Australia's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said there is no indication that it is more deadly than other strains.

Kolanovic, who became JPMorgan's chief global markets strategist earlier this year, has advocated reopening trades and defended value stocks as the pandemic has evolved. He has also argued that markets overreacted to the threat of the delta variant.

It would fit with historical patterns for a less severe and more transmissible virus to quickly crowd out more severe variants, which could turn omicron into a catalyst to transform a deadly pandemic into something more akin to seasonal flu, the JPMorgan strategists wrote in the Wednesday note.

"If that scenario were to happen, instead of skipping two letters and naming it omicron, the WHO could have skipped all the way to omega," — the last letter of the Greek alphabet — the strategists said.

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