Vaccine approval approaching: Biontech gives Wall Street tailwind

Tuesday, December 8th, 2020

Vaccine approval is approaching
Biontech gives Wall Street a tailwind

Biontech and Pfizer's vaccine candidate receives high marks from the US Food and Drug Administration. The news creates confidence on Wall Street – and slight price gains. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has to cope with another setback.

Wall Street posted slight gains. Confidence was given that the US health authority FDA has certified Biontech and Pfizer with the prescribed success criteria for the approval of their corona vaccine. This suggests that she should soon give the green light to the vaccine. A vaccination committee based at the FDA will discuss an emergency approval on Thursday. At the same time, sentiment was negatively impacted by the corona pandemic, which continued to rage.

The Dow Jones Index gained 0.4 percent to 30,174 points during the S&P 500 by 0.3 percent. For the Nasdaq composite it went up by 0.5 percent. All three indices made new all-time highs.

The corona crisis is meanwhile leading to new highs in hospital occupancy in the USA. Against this background, calls for tougher corona measures in the USA are getting louder. The long-awaited economic stimulus program in the USA is making little headway. On the table is a package worth $ 908 billion. "We're not out of the woods yet. There is a risk of further lockdowns, especially in the US," warned fund manager Georgina Taylor from Invesco.

After all, a compromise in the US Congress on the US budget is intended to prevent federal agencies from being shut down. Democrats and Republicans agreed on Monday to adopt a one-week transitional arrangement.

Oil prices close somewhat weaker

Little happened on the foreign exchange market, with the dollar index increasing by 0.2 percent. The euro was just above $ 1.21 after $ 1.2137 on Monday evening. Traders see the dollar as a supposedly safe currency haven at an advantage in view of the short-term political risks and the progression of the pandemic. The inflation outlook in the US would have rather diminished given the gloomy growth outlook.

Oil prices fluctuated back and forth, but tended to be somewhat weak. The price for a barrel of US light oil of the grade WTI declined 0.2 percent to $ 45.65, North Sea oil of the variety Brent gained 0.2 percent to $ 48.90. Dealers spoke of concerns about a drop in demand in the US state of California because of the increasingly strict corona lockdowns there. The gasoline consumption there is the highest in the USA.

The troy ounce gold rose 0.5 percent to $ 1,871. In addition to the ongoing uncertainty, the expectation of an extremely deaf European Central Bank on Thursday was also supported.

Biontech, Pfizer and Tesla on the rise

Among the individual stocks rose Biontech and Pfizer with the positive headlines by 1.8 and 3.2 percent. Tesla advanced 1.3 percent. After the soaring of its shares, the electric car manufacturer has announced that it wants to throw its own shares onto the market from time to time in coordination with several banks and with a total volume of 5 billion dollars.

Boeing lost 0.7 percent. The aircraft manufacturer has received further cancellations for its 737 Max, including from Virgin Australia, whose order has thus been halved. The luxury home builder's share Great Brothers fell 7.9 percent after the fourth quarter earnings fell year over year. While sales rose 7 percent from the increased interest in houses during the corona pandemic, higher costs depressed earnings. However, earnings per share are still well above forecasts.

The stock of the armaments company listed in the Dow Jones Index Raytheon advanced 2.0 percent. The company issues a $ 5 billion share buyback. The company's buybacks are a political issue because they have been criticized by the US Department of Defense. The Pentagon wants the company to invest more of its funds instead. The share of Smartsheet soared 11.0 percent. The manufacturer of software for executing corporate projects has incurred fewer losses than feared.