The S&P 500 Index shrugged off news about the spread of the omicron strain of the coronavirus to advance slightly on Monday, as hospitalizations remained in check. 

The benchmark gauge was up 0.5% as of 10:04 a.m. in New York. Nine of the 11 major industry groups rose, with consumer staples, utilities and real estate sectors leading gains. 

The uncertainty arising out of the virus’s latest outbreak is expected to continue roiling the markets over the next few weeks, especially after mixed economic data last week rattled investors, prompting an exit from high-risk assets into safer havens. 

While the major of S&P 500 companies have reported third-quarter earnings, Campbell Soup, GameStop and Rent the Runway report on Wednesday.

U.S. stock futures rose in early trading on Wednesday, after stocks continued their upward climb overnight from the omicron sell-off.

The Nasdaq Composite posted their best days since March. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite was the stand-out performer after gaining more than 3%.

All 11 sectors were positive on Tuesday, led by Tech, which rose 3.5%.

Stocks have recovered this week from last week’s market rout on fears of the omicron Covid variant and a possible faster-than-expected taper of the Federal Reserve’s bond buying program.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release October’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting there were 10.6 million open positions in October, up from 10.4 million in September.