The Dow Jones finished up nearly 3% on the day, led by the Covid-19 vaccine candidate news from Dow component
Pfizer
PFE
. However, the index closed under half its session highs today; what had promised to be a record performance to kick off the week had to settle for merely “very good.” For the month of November thus far, the Dow has already climbed more than 10%. The S&P 500 was up a more modest 41 points, +1.17%, while the Nasdaq sold off 181 points, of -1.53%.
Not only Pfizer, +8%, and its vaccine partner
BioNTech
BNTX
, +15% today, put pent-up buying really came to pandemic-tamped companies like
Carnival Cruise Lines
CCL
and
Expedia
EXPE
, up 39% and 25% on the day, respectively. Even oil companies did well as investors look forward to a return to our dynamic, traveling economy, with
ConocoPhillips
COP
up 14.5% today, and Permian Basin-driller
Diamondback Energy
FANG
up a whopping 31%, coming as this does a week after its earnings beat and new dividend payout.
But for every
Disney
DIS
up 12% today, there’s a
Zoom Video
ZM
down 17%.
Netflix
NFLX
and
Facebook
FB
are also down on this quick flip into cyclicals and out of “stay at home” tech. The Tech industry overall — carrying the majority of the gains through 2020 to this point — was down 0.73% Monday, helping lead the Nasdaq’s close in the red.
We expect some of this initial exuberance to temper over time. After all, just because we may finally get to spend more time out on the town in the foreseeable future doesn’t mean Netflix or Facebook are going to be all that negatively impacted.
American Express
AXP
is up 22% on expected renewed consumer activity, but
Bank of America
BAC
also grew 14% on the day, which might seem a bit of a stretch based on the same narrative.
The fact of the matter is, the stock market retains its presence as a future economic indicator, but the here and now remains a very serious second-wave pandemic situation. More than 10 million Americans have now reportedly contracted Covid-19, growing at an alarming rate of more than 100K per day, with an all-time high 128K new cases on Saturday alone. Yes, the vaccine will bring us a long way back, and treatments and care have done a better job helping patients recover, but the distances we need to travel back keep getting longer and longer.
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