Gunning for a new record, the Dow Jones (vaccine) shot out of the gate on Tuesday, determined to end 2020 on a high.
Up 400 points, the Dow found itself back above 30,050, and within a whisker of its all-time peak.
There’s still a long way until the session’s close, and the index has failed to finish above that milestone a couple of times now.
However, it’s perhaps an indication Monday’s month-end trading was a blip, and that investors are still very much on board the vaccine bandwagon.
In terms of the latest headlines, the European Medicines Agency has said that, data permitting, it will produce its assessment of the Pfizer/BioNTech preparation on December 29th, and the Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) vaccine on January 12th.
That chimes with Emmanuel Macron’s stated aim of a widespread covid-19 vaccination campaign in France between April and June.
As for the US, the FDA is set to review the Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna vaccines on December 10th and December 17th respectively.
It’s another step closer to pre-pandemic normality, and though there are still, minimum, months of lockdown measures left, and a war’s worth of economic damage to undo over the next few years, the markets are firmly focused on the long-term.
With the Dow Jones riding high, the FTSE expanded its gains to 1.5%, propelling the UK index above 6,385. The DAX and CAC, on the other hand, were far calmer, climbing half a percent a piece – that means the German bourse has actually retreated since the start of the day.
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