Dow Jones record high after Pfizer vaccine Results

GURU WISDOM

“It ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” – Dan Cook
 

MARKETS

Investor sentiment climbed following the announcement on Saturday that most of the major networks and the Associated Press called the Presidential election for former Vice President Biden. Confidence spread across the globe as most stock markets rallied. Bells were ringing across Europe as many felt like it was the end of world war II. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is the first woman to be elected to the Vice Presidency. 

Stocks got another big boost following the news that Pfizer had substantial success with its phase 3 trial of its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech reported that their coronavirus vaccine had more than than 90% effective rate in preventing Covid-19. The analysis during the phase 3 trial evaluated 94 confirmed Covid-19 infections among the trial’s 43,538 participants. Pfizer expects to be able to produce 50-million doses in 2020 and 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

All sectors in the S&P 500 index were higher, led by energy shares. Hospitality and leisure stocks which have fallen on hard times soared. Stay at home stocks such as Zoom and Peloton came under pressure.

Oil prices rallied nearly 8% as expectations of future demand have been buoyed by the potential for a vaccine sooner rather than later. The strength in crude oil helped drive up energy shares. US yields surged higher with the 10-year Treasury yield climbing 14-basis points up to 95-basis points, which helped buoy the dollar, which weighed on gold prices. 
 

Biden Declared President-Elect

On Saturday, November 7, former Vice President Joe Biden was declared President-elect. This came following the news that Pennsylvania has produced nearly all of its votes, which put the new President-elect out of reach. The news generated a huge outdoor party across the United States especially in big cities, as crowds poured into the streets. President-elect Biden received congratulatory phone calls from world leaders as well as former President George W. Bush, but President Trump did not concede and said he would fight the election results in court. During the weekend, several associates close to the president reportedly told him that it would be better for the country if he would concede but as of Monday evening, this had not occurred. 
 

Biden Announces COVID Taskforce

In an address to the nation on Monday, President-Elect Biden urged mask-wearing as he laid out his strategy to fight the pandemic. While the news of Pfizer's vaccine will help to mitigate the spread of the virus, this is unlikely to help for the next several months. The US is facing more than 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day and Biden’s mandate is to squash the spread of the coronavirus.