Friends
As I mentioned this morning, despite continued political theater, Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine results was today’s major news story. Yes, we have a long way to go. First we need FDA approval for this and hopefully other vaccines. Then we have to produce these vaccines and get them to the public. This is all going to take some time, but today we at least got a glimpse of what next year might look like. Stocks rallied at the open, which would be expected, but did lose steam as the trading session wore on.
Nevertheless, it was a pretty good day for stocks. By the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 834 points to finish the day at 29,157. The S&P 500 was up 41 points to close at 3,550. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 181 points to close at 11,713. Gold was down $87 to trade at $1,864 per ounce, while oil was up $3.00 to trade at $40.14 per barrel WTI.
The big winners today, were reopen stocks such as airlines, cruise lines, hospitality, energy and financials. Today’s losers were the winners throughout the year- namely the stay at home stocks like Netflix, Amazon, Zoom and Peloton. So, despite the advance in the Dow and the S&P, Nasdaq struggled throughout the trading session. There will still be plenty of hurdles to clear as we go forward in the battle verses the pandemic. It is likely to get worse (and, indeed is getting worse) before it gets better. But, at least today we have a new hope.
Have a nice evening everyone.
