The World Economic Forum has just postponed for the second year in a row its annual meeting in Davos due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The announcement comes as increasingly more countries are enacting lockdowns and travel bans in the face of the most contagious variant to date.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, has added the U.S., Canada, and eight other countries to the list of places that citizens are banned from traveling to due to higher percentages of positive COVID tests upon return. It was the first country to close its borders in November and is tightening down exposure points as Omicron sweeps through and the country experiences its fifth wave of COVID infections.
“In my opinion, in three or four weeks, maybe sooner, we will see a jump in morbidity that will leave no room for doubt,” Bennett said on Sunday. He has encouraged businesses within his country to have their employees work from home, a model that other countries could soon be reverting back to.
The World Economic Forum organizers have postponed the in-person meeting until early summer and instead will be hosting online sessions in lieu of meetings in Switzerland next month. It’s a similar circumstance to last year, which saw the WEF postpone and then ultimately just cancel entirely the in-person meeting because of pandemic concerns.
In European countries that are already experiencing massive spikes in infections, experts are warning of the dangers to industries that Omicron presents if workers are all having to isolate simultaneously.
The World Continues to Rely Heavily on Internet-Related Companies
As the world looks to be retreating once more into lockdowns in the face of a highly contagious strain of COVID-19, many of the work-from-home businesses and those in related fields could see an increase once more in use and revenue. The Invesco NASDAW Internet ETF (PNQI) offers exposure to many companies that have thrived during the pandemic when consumer patterns changed abruptly due to isolation.
PNQI invests at least 90% of its assets in the Nasdaq CTA Internet Index utilizing a full replication strategy. The index is comprised of internet-related companies whose primary revenue is derived from web hosting, internet software, search engines, website design, internet retail commerce, and other internet-related services.
Top holdings include Alphabet Inc (GOOGL) at 8.58%, Amazon.com (AMZN) at 8.29%, Netflix (NFLX) at 7.82%, PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL) at 4.31%, and Zoom (ZM) at 1.86%.
PNQI carries an expense ratio of 0.60% and currently has 82 holdings.
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