Summaries of 3 big stories from today in finance.

1. Omicron Causes More Food Outages in Stores

As reported by Bloomberg, Omicron has stressed grocery stores’ food supply chains in two ways. First, the increased virulence of omicron over previous covid strains has led food distributors such as SpartanNash Co. to see a tripling of workers out due to sickness when compared with just a few months ago. The shortage of available labor has also made it difficult for such companies to continue operating at the same capacity. Second, renewed fears of the virus have led many consumers to purchase more food during grocery trips, thus straining demand at the same time as supply is crunched.

2. GameStop Stock Soars 30% After-Hours on Rumored NFT Plans

Gamestop’s stock soared over 30% in after-hours trading today on reported news that it is building an NFT marketplace that will focus on gaming NFTs which represent in-game assets such as avatar outfits and weapons. The company has apparently already hired more than 20 people to work in the new division and is creating partnerships with two crypto companies to co-invest in blockchain games and other NFT technology. Find more info on Yahoo Finance and the Wall Street Journal.

3. Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Stealing U.S. Trade Secrets

Xiang Haitao, a Chinese national who was employed by Monsanto and a subsidiary from 2008 to 2017, pleaded guilty today in U.S. federal court to the charge of conspiracy to commit economic espionage for the benefit of the Chinese government. Xiang was found in possession of copies of a proprietary prediction algorithm used by Monsanto. He now faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Read the full story on Reuters.