Macau stocks bounce as China takes "step in right direction" on Covid

Macau operator stocks surged on Tuesday after China announced its first major easing in border restrictions since the pandemic began. China will now require a mandatory quarantine of just seven days, plus three days of self-health monitoring, cutting the isolation period from 14 days plus seven self-monitoring for most cities. Although operator stocks were sharply higher, Bloomberg cited Lei Zhenglong, a National Health Commission official as saying the change did not reflect a change in the country's zero-Covid response. It was instead a scientific reaction based on the shorter incubation period of the Omicron variant. However, after months of bad…