US stocks hit record highs on Monday amid positive news about the effectiveness of Pfizer’s SARS-CoV-2 vaccine currently in development and news that Joe Biden had emerged as the clear winner in the November 3 US presidential election, even as US President Donald Trump contests the decision.
When the closing bell rang on Monday for the first time since most of the US mainstream media declared Biden the obvious winner of the election, the Dow Jones was nearly 3% higher than it had closed on Friday, when the outcome was still very much in question.
Just after opening on Monday morning, all three indices were even higher than their closing levels, with the Dow reaching an all-time high for single-day gains of more than 1,600 points. The S&P 500 grew by 2.7% early-on, but fell later in the day.
The Dow hit a major low late last month as COVID-19 cases grew sharply around the planet and European nations introduced new lockdown measures designed to curb the virus’ spread. The situation in the United States remains grim, with the country having added a million new cases in just 10 days’ time, but the possibility of a highly effective vaccine soon arriving to calm the chaos could soon mean an end to the social and economic turmoil that has characterized much of 2020.
However, tech companies that have several benefited by the push for remote access to resources via the internet created by the COVID-19 pandemic saw major losses on Monday at the signal that in-person interaction could soon resume. Netflix lost 7.58% while Zoom Video Communications lost 16.5% of its value and Peleton Interactive lost 17%. Another major loser was cleaner maker Clorox, which has benefited from the need to sterilize surfaces to prevent the virus’ spread. The company lost 9.69% of its value on Monday.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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