The announcement came on Monday from pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and BioNTech who have been working on the vaccine for months. The coronavirus has already led to considerable uncertainty in the economy and the markets as the cases continue to rise with more than 230,000 Americans already being dead due to the virus.
Wall Street cheered on the news and the U.S Futures gained enormously. The Dow Jones surged massively by 1,718 points or 6.1%, the S&P 500 went up by 4% and Russell 2000 futures jumped 7%. However, not all was good news for the stock market. The Nasdaq, tied to technology stocks, fell 0.5% as investors decided to leave stay-at-home stocks.
Zoom plunged 15% along with Amazon and Netflix sliding 3.4% and 5.4% respectively. Teladoc Health dropped 6.4% and Shopify fell 5.1%. These shares had seen some of the strongest rallies this year since the pandemic started. This year Zoom rocketed 635%, Amazon 79.2%, Netflix 59.1%, Teladoc 146.2%, and Shopify 162.8%.
During the pre-market trading, stocks of Pfizer and BioNTech leaped by 12% and 14% respectively as both companies work together on making an effective vaccine. The companies reported that they planned on requesting for Emergency Use Authorization of the vaccine candidate to the U.S Food and Drug Administration once they have collected data for two months to meet the agency’s safety requirements.
Moreover, the news came as a hope to the sectors worst hit by the pandemic including travel, restaurants, and hospitality companies. Post Pfizer’s announcement, these stocks surged by more than they have in the past few months. Shares of the cruise operating firm, Carnival Corp, jumped by 18%, Southwest Airlines rocketed 9% while the giant Walt Disney increased 6%, as investors hope that the vaccine would allow things to come back to normal and tourism to start again.
The newly elected President Joe Biden congratulated Pfizer, however, he emphasized that all safety precautions still needed to be taken, including wearing masks, until the pandemic completely ends.
Prior to the vaccine news, stocks rallied post the elections, even though Trump rejected the outcome, and Dow was up by 400 points. Investors hope that the negatives of a Biden presidency including, an increase in corporate taxes, would be set off by a Republican Senate.
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
