Stocks surge on fresh risk appetite after Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine news

Stock markets surged on Monday after Pfizer announced that its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective.

Pfizer and German partner BioNtech are the first drug makers to release successful data from a large-scale of clinical tests of a coronavirus vaccine.
Two companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek US authorization for emergency use of the vaccine this month.

This marks a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has so far killed more than a million people and significantly slowed the global economy.

Pfizer’s CEO said that today is a great day for science and humanity as the company reached critical milestone in vaccine development program, at a time when the world needs it most as infections set new records, hospitals are full and economies struggle to re-open.

If the vaccine is authorized, the number of doses is expected to be limited initially, with main question of how long the vaccine will provide protection.

Markets exploded after the announcement which further boosted risk sentiment, sparked by Biden’s announcement of the victory in US 2020 presidential election.

Pfizer shares rose around 14% in pre-market trading in New York, while BioN tech’s stock was up 23% in Frankfurt.

The Wall Street opened higher on Monday, with banks and airlines leading. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan rose 4-8% with IAG (the owner of British Airways) rising nearly 40% and US Airlines, United and American, being up over 20%.

Gold was among the biggest losers today (down nearly 5% for the day) as fresh risk sentiment sparked strong sell-off in safe-haven yellow metal.