Dow closes up more than 800 points on vaccine news, Biden win

4:05 pm: US stocks rally on vaccine news but tech stumbles 

US stocks rallied but closed mixed after drugmaker Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) said its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective.

In addition, news of Democrat Joe Biden securing the presidential election drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 to near all-time highs as well.  

On the day, the Dow exploded 834 points, or 2.95%, to 28,157. The S&P 500 jumped 1.17% to 3,500 but the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.53% to 11,713.

12:20 pm: Dow up more than 1K at midday

The DJIA skyrocketed 1,218 points, 4.3%, to 29,542.4, the Nasdaq was up 69 points, 0.6% to 11,963.9, and the S&P 500 gained 100 points, 2.9%, to 3,608.9.

News that Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) have developed a vaccine that showed 90% effectiveness in trial data drove massive gains in the airline, transport and hospitality sectors, Madden noted. 

United Airlines Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:UAL), Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) and Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) all gained more than 10%.

“The Dow Jones and S&P 500 set fresh all-time highs on the back of the optimism surrounding the possible coronavirus vaccine,” CMC Markets UK David Madden wrote Monday. “This story has been bubbling away in the background for several months now, hence the upward move in Pfizer isn’t that big all things considered, the share price is up 9%.”

10.30am: Proactive North America headlines:

GlobeX Data Ltd (CSE:SWIS) (OTCQB:SWISF) expands Middle Eastern presence with agreement to distribute Sekur solutions in Kuwait

Hillcrest Petroleum Ltd (CVE:HRH) (OTCMKTS:HLRTF) (FRA:7HI) names clean-energy expert Ari Berger as General Manager Technology Development

Fury Gold Mines Limited (TSE:FURY) (NYSEAMERICAN:FURY) (FRA:AUN1) begins 50,000 metre drill program at its Eau Claire project in Quebec

O3 Mining Inc (CVE:OIII) (OTCMKTS:OQMGF)  consolidates its ground at Malartic property in Quebec after buying remaining 50% Northern Star claims

Mineworx Technologies Ltd (CVE:MWX) (OTCQB:MWXRF) (FRA:YRS) advances its diesel catalytic converter recycling plant to pilot phase

Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ZYNE) (FRA:6ZY) flush with $64.3M in 3Q to fund development of its flagship Zygel CBD gel

Benchmark Metals Inc (CVE:BNCH) (OTCQX:BNCHF) says latest drill results at Cliff Creek zone augur well for Lawyers resource estimate in first quarter

Blackrock Gold Corp (CVE:BRC) (OTCQB:BKRRF) (FRA:AHZ) begins 3,500-metre drill program at its Silver Cloud project in Nevada

Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC) wins Hong Kong patent for the enhanced detection of rare cells, including cancer cells

Nextleaf Solutions Ltd (CSE:OILS) (OTCQB:OILFF) (FRA:L0MA) says subsidiary Nextleaf Labs strikes cannabis extraction deal with Natural MedCo

Algernon Pharmaceuticals Inc (CSE:AGN) (OTCQB:AGNPF) (FRA:AGW) to share interim data from Phase 2b/3 human study of Ifenprodil to treat COVID-19 in December

9.41am; US stocks soar at open

The main Wall Street indices have rocketed upwards on Monday morning in New York as Pfizer’s news on its coronavirus vaccine seems to have sent equities into overdrive.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 5.3% to 29,825, while the S&P 500 jumped 3.6% to 3,637 and the Nasdaq bounced 0.85% to 11,996.

News that the Pfizer vaccine was 90% effective in Phase III clinical trials, higher than expected, coupled with reduced political risk following the election victory of Joe Biden over the weekend has caused risk appetite among investors to soar as many may now be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for a volatile year.

“With Covid wreaking havoc across Europe and the US once again, the Pfizer announcement has provided the lift we’ve all craved… We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and hopefully others will soon join Pfizer and BioNTech and enable us to break this vicious cycle of lockdowns and cautious reopenings that’s killing businesses, causing rising unemployment and massively adding to the debt load around the world. This is the light at the end of the tunnel moment and just look at the reaction in the markets. One of incredible relief”, said OANDA’s Craig Erlam.

“The Pfizer moment will be bittersweet for President Trump – who has already tweeted out his delight at the news – after months of claiming a vaccine would be announced ahead of the election. A vaccine should never have become political but it quite clearly has in recent months and I’m sure the President will feel a little disappointed at the announcement coming a week or two too late. Still, this isn’t political and it has been a remarkable effort to get to this point in such a short space of time”, he added.

7.36am: Wall Street set to surge

Some heartening news on a potential treatment for the coronavirus (COVID-19) is set to light a fire under US equities.

Spread betting quotes suggest the Dow Jones Industrial Average will add more than a thousand points – 1,128 to be precise – and open at around 29,451.

The S&P 500 is expected to soar 107 points to 3,615 while the NASDAQ Composite is predicted to jump 371 points to 12,266.

The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech was successful in preventing more than 90% of people from getting the coronavirus in a preliminary test.

Pfizer and BioNTech said following the preliminary analysis that it is “a great day for science and humanity”.

The apparent 90% success rate was much higher than expected.

The news added extra fuel to what was already set to be a hot start for US equities in the wake of Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden’s presidential election victory last week.

Biden is reportedly to set up a task force to tackle the spread of the virus, which was described as “out of control and accelerating” by Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

“Yesterday saw 106K cases, up 44% from Sunday last week. The trend rate of increase has now risen to about 34% per week, almost doubling over the past week. If this continues, Chart 1 below shows that by the end of the year, the US would be reporting 1.0 million cases per day, which would mean that the national picture would be nearly twice as bad as North Dakota—the worst hit state, by far—is right now,” Shepherdson said.

Four things to watch for on Monday:

• Share price reaction from Pfizer will be in focus following its positive news on the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine
• Investors will also be eyeing McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD) after the fast food giant reported quarterly earnings that topped market expectations and hiked its dividend following a sales boost from US consumers as promotions drove them back into its outlets
• By contrast, the news of vaccine is bad news for firms that have cashed in on lockdown, with shares in conference call specialist Zoom Video Communications Inc (NASDAQ:ZM) having taken a hit in pre-market trading in New York
• The macro calendar is a little threadbare on Monday, however US consumer inflation expectations for October may hold some attention. The figure is forecast to fall to 2.8% from 2.98% in September

Story by ProactiveInvestors