Advertisment
Stocks rose on Monday, building on last week’s strong performance, as investors looked past record numbers in coronavirus cases from the weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrials galloped 319.33 points, or 1.2%, to 26,349.63.
The S&P 500 forged ahead 32.71 points, or 1%, to 3,217.55
The tech-heavy NASDAQ conquered yet more new territory, leaping 141.12 points, or 1.3%, to 10,758.56.
Positive news on the vaccine front lifted sentiment as well. Pfizer and German biotech BioNTech SE were granted fast track designation by the FDA for two of the companies’ four vaccine candidates against the coronavirus. Pfizer shares added 2.6%. BioNTech jumped 10%.
Pfizer and BioNTech said they expect to start the next phase of the vaccine trial later this month with 30,000 subjects. The companies expect to have 100 million doses of a vaccine by the end of 2020 and more than 1.2 billion doses by the end of 2021, according to a release.
Key technology shares climbed, continuing their mystifying run as investors bet on their resilience during the coronavirus. Apple, Amazon and Netflix were higher. Tesla jumped 12.6%. Analysts at Wedbush and Morgan Stanley raised their price targets on Apple, sending the stock up 1.9%.
Chip stocks increased after Analog Devices offered to buy Maxim Integrated in a $21 billion all-stock deal. Maxim jumped 11%.
Florida reported 15,299 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the highest single day total for any U.S. state since the pandemic began.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has reported more than 60,000 new cases daily for three days in a row now, bringing the national total to more than three million cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury faded, raising yields to 0.65% from Friday’s 0.64%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped 32 cents to $40.23 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices climbed $9.90 to $1,811.80 U.S. an ounce.
