US stock indices rose on Thursday, mid focus on the pandemic developments, and after the release of upbeat economic data.
The French government reported more than 208,000 cases in a single day, the highest daily rate of infections in Europe since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The French Minister of Health warned of a coronavirus tsunami in France, which reflects WHO Director Tedros Adhanom's statements that Omicron, spreading at the same time as Delta, is leading to a tsunami of cases.
This came despite a study on cases infected with the omicron variant suggested lower risk of hospitalization and severe disease compared to the delta variant.
The US Department of Labor showed that the unemployment claims fell to 198K during the past week, better than forecasts of 205K, and better than the previous reading of 206K.
As for stocks, Dow Jones rose 0.2% or 74 points to 36,563 as of 15:15 GMT, and S&P 500 rose 0.2% or 13 points to 4,806, while Nasdaq rose 0.5% or 85 points to 15,851.