US STOCKS-Wall Street rallies on coronavirus vaccine trial results

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
(Updates to close, adds commentary)
By Sinéad Carew
NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended higher but
closed just shy of a record on Monday as investors bet that a
full economic reopening was finally in sight following the first
positive data from a late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial.
Oil prices soared and pushed up energy stocks while
safe-haven U.S. Treasuries sold off after U.S. drugmaker Pfizer
PFE.N and its German partner BioNTech BNTX.O said a
large-scale trial of their vaccine showed it was more than 90%
effective in preventing COVID-19. O/R US/
Saturday's news that Joe Biden had won the U.S. presidential
election was also a reassuring confirmation of what investors
had already been counting on by the end of last week, according
to market strategists.
"Election uncertainty is fading into the rearview mirror.
Now we have this boost of investor enthusiasm after the vaccine
news," said to Michael Antonelli, market strategist at Baird in
Milwaukee. "All the types of companies that would benefit from
us returning to a pre-COVID world are the big winners today."
Sectors such as energy, travel and financials which were
among the hardest hit by lockdowns aimed at curbing the virus
were some of the biggest percentage gainers on Monday.
While the vaccine study is still ongoing and requires
approval, Pfizer and BioNTech said they had found no serious
safety concerns so far and expected to seek U.S. emergency use
authorization later this month. "It's not that we're out of the woods with COVID. It's that
the vaccine starts to remove the worst case scenario that we
surge out of control and go back into a national lockdown," said
Antonelli. "The market's looking into the future, to the first
and second quarter of next year."
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
839.61 points, or 2.96%, to 29,163.01, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
44.25 points, or 1.26%, to 3,553.69 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 162.91 points, or 1.37%, to 11,732.32.
The S&P energy index .SPNY led gainers among the S&P 500's
11 major sectors and registered its biggest daily percentage
gain in months as investors bet demand would climb again when
people become more comfortable with the idea of traveling as the
health crisis subsides.
Also, bank shares .SPXBK , often seen as a proxy for the
broader economy, soared.
The companies hit hardest by months of travel bans and
lockdowns surged. The NYSE airlines index .XAL was up 19%
while plane maker Boeing Co BA.N jumped 15%. Cruise line
operator Carnival Corp CCL.N was up more than 32%.
In contrast, the technology sector and specific companies
that had outperformed during the pandemic as they were seen as
"stay-at-home" winners were making smaller gains or declining.
Netflix Inc NFLX.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O declined
while Zoom Video ZM.O and exercise bike maker Peloton
Interactive Inc PTON.O> tumbled to limit the Nasdaq's advance.
"Stocks like tech are being served up as a form of proceeds
to fund the purchase of pro-cyclical stocks that would stand to
benefit from the economic reopening that could be accelerated by
way of a vaccine," said Mark Luschini, chief investment
strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.
Stocks around the world had already been gaining ground
before the vaccine data pushed equities even higher as
expectations of better global trade ties and more monetary
stimulus under U.S. President-elect Biden was already lifting
demand for risky assets. MKTS/GLOB
Pfizer shares closed sharply higher after soaring as much as
15.4% during the session. But another drugmaker Biogen Inc
BIIB.O slumped as a panel of experts to the U.S. health
regulator voted against the drugmaker's experimental Alzheimer's
treatment.