US equity markets booked a third straight decline as major global cities grappled with surging COVID-19 infections tied to the omicron variant - Dow down -433-points or -1.23%, with Boeing Co (down -2.15%), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (-2.67%) and American Express (-2.57%) among the key drags on the index. The broader S&P500 -1.14%, with Financials (down -1.90%), Materials (-1.82%), Industrials (1.65%) and Consumer Discretionary (-1.65%) all down over >1.5% to lead nine of eleven primary sectors lower. Utilities (up +0.05%) and Consumer Staples (+0.04%) were the only primary sectors to edge higher. Th technology-centric Nasdaq shed -1.24%. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 -1.40%. In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, enterprise software giant Oracle Corp (down -5.15%) announced that it will buy electronic medical records company Cerner Corp (+0.80%) in an all-cash deal for US$95 per share, or ~US$28.3B in equity value.