The market-wide S&P 500 advanced on Tuesday by 1.17 percent to 3690.07 points. For the technology-heavy selection index Nasdaq 100 it went up 0.73 percent to 12,552.97 points.
After an emergency approval, vaccinations against Covid-19 began in all US states on Monday. First of all, employees of health facilities as well as residents of old people’s and nursing homes are to be vaccinated. It is the largest vaccination campaign in the history of the country.
Investors are also hoping for the long-announced government aid package for the economy that has been hard hit by the corona pandemic. In addition, the meeting of the US Federal Reserve is approaching. The Fed plans to announce its monetary policy decisions on Wednesday. “It could also be a meeting without major measures, surprises and impulses,” wrote Milan Cutkovic from AxiCorp. “Fed Chairman Powell is more likely to emphasize the importance of further stimulus measures on the part of the state in order to reduce the risk of another recession.”
Among the individual stocks, the shares of Apple at the top of the Dow rose 4.0 percent. As the Japanese business newspaper “Nikkei” reports, the group wants to increase its iPhone production in the first half of 2021 by 30 percent.
Prevail Therapeutics’ shares shot up more than 82 percent to $ 22.78 after US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced it would take over the biotech company. Prevail shareholders are to receive $ 22.50 per share in cash, which corresponds to a premium of 80 percent on the closing price on Monday. Eli Lilly’s papers rose more than 5 percent.
Shortly before a possible emergency approval, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) presented figures on the high effectiveness of Moderna’s corona vaccine. Media reported that the emergency approval of the vaccine was likely on Friday. Moderna shares continued their correction after the price jump at the end of November and fell 6.5 percent on Tuesday.
Bristol-Meyers Squibb’s (BMS) papers benefited from a positive analyst study, gaining 3.8 percent. Goldman Sachs had made positive comments about the pharmaceutical stock and put it on the “Conviction Buy List” for particularly promising stocks./edh/mis
(AWP)
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