An ugly finish to the shortened Thanksgiving week for US equity markets during a thinly traded, abbreviated Black Friday session as a new COVID variant found in South Africa triggered a shift away from risk assets - Dow dropped -905-points or -2.53%, down over >1,000 points at its worst levels of the session and recording its worst daily decline since 28 October, 2020. The decline for the Dow saw it mark its first close below its 50-day moving average (at 35,261.93) since 14 October. Boeing Co fell -5.41%. The broader S&P500 tumbled -2.27% to 4,594.62, with Energy (down -4.07%) leading all eleven primary sectors lower and with six of those logging falls of over >2.5%. Travel stocks were unsurprisingly under the pump, with Delta Air Lines Inc down -8.34%, United Airlines Holdings Inc -9.57%, American Airlines Group Inc –8.79%, and cruise operators Royal Caribbean Group tumbling -13.22% and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd -11.36%. A number of technical/charting analysts cite the 50-day moving average of 4,570 as a key level, along with 4,566 (representing a 38.2% retracement of the rally); and 4,550 (a previous high from early September) and the round figure of 4,500. Tesla Inc slid -3.05% after a report that the company will invest US$188M to expand production capacity at its Shanghai factory. The Nasdaq -2.23%. Microsoft Corp’s (down -2.44%) Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella sold ~838.6K shares of common stock – or about half of his holding - last week (22 and 23 November) between US$349.22 and US$334.37 per share. The declines for the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq Composite represented their worst Black Friday performance since 1950.The small capitalisation Russell 2000 -3.67%. China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc sank -2.84% after Bloomberg reported that Chinese regulators have asked the firm’s executives to formulate a plan to delist from the U.S.