Dow Jones up 2.95%, S&P 500 up 1.17% surge
Airline and tourism stocks soar on lockdown easing hopes
Nasdaq tech stocks benefiting from untact plunge sharply
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The New York stock market responded positively after Pfizer, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, announced that the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed with Germany's BioNTech showed over 90% efficacy in interim results of the Phase 3 clinical trial. Achieving over 90% efficacy can be interpreted as the virus being controllable to that extent. As expectations for eradicating COVID-19 increased, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, which are centered on traditional companies, surged sharply.
On the 9th (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 29,157.19, up 834.57 points (2.95%) from the previous session. The S&P 500 also closed at 3,550.50, up 1.17%. Airline and travel stocks such as Boeing (13.71%), Delta Air Lines (17.03%), and Booking.com (18.75%), along with bank stocks like JPMorgan (13.54%) and Citigroup (11.54%), and energy sector stocks including ExxonMobil (12.66%) surged amid expectations of increased oil demand.
As the possibility of eradicating COVID-19 grew, the Nasdaq, which had benefited from the non-face-to-face economy, plunged. The Nasdaq closed down 181.45 points (1.53%) at 11,713.78. Online shopping sectors such as Amazon (-5.06%) and eBay (-4.68%), video conferencing-related stocks like Zoom Video (-17.37%) and Nvidia (-6.40%), as well as streaming services and gaming sectors including Netflix (-8.59%) and Blizzard (-4.31%) all experienced sharp declines.
Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at U.S. asset management firm Globalt, explained, "The expectation that masks will no longer be necessary and the economy will reopen has lifted airline and travel stocks, which had been in a prolonged slump."
Meanwhile, as of 11 a.m. on the same day, the KOSPI was up 0.28% from the previous day at 2,454.12, while the KOSDAQ was down 1.18% at 841.18.
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