*** UPDATE ***
Risk markets continue to soar after the Pfizer announcement, while traditional risk-haven assets collapse.
European equity markets are now up anywhere between 5% and 7% with the travel sector, oil and banks just some of the sectors up by double figures. Wall Street is up over 1500 points while the tech sector is flat.
In the commodities space, oil and gas continue to rally hard while gold and silver are hit by sellers.
All prices via @IG.com
Coronavirus Vaccine Analysis & News
Equity markets have spike higher after Pfizer says its COVID vaccine is more than 90% effective in preventing COVD-19 based on initial data from its late stage trial. S&P 500 futures are soaring by 3.5%, while outperformance has been seen immediately in European equities. On a sector specific basis, travel related shares are on the front-foot with European airliners showing double-digit gains.
Equity Reaction
S&P 500 Price Chart: Intra-day
Nasdaq 100 is underperforming however, given that large tech stocks have been among the notable beneficiaries during the pandemic at the expenses of small cap stocks. In turn, following the announcement from Pfizer, the Russell 2000 has hit limit up amid a rotation into value from growth stocks.
Nasdaq 100 Price Chart: Intra-day
Russell 2000 Price Chart: Intra-day
FX Reaction
Across the FX space, the notable mover has been the safe-haven Japanese Yen which is underperforming across the board following the announcement, while high-beta currencies (AUD,NZD, CAD) and EM FX are outperforming. That said, the USD is also holding up relatively well, keep in mind that while the USD can be viewed as a safe-haven, a US Pharmaceutical company providing the first vaccine, would be expected to see inflows into the US Dollar to stem any safe-haven related outflows.
Commodities Reaction
Oil prices have surged higher with Brent and WTI rising as much as 8%, while gold prices have dropped 2% in tandem with bond futures.
