Until the hope of a vaccine revives, the Paris Stock Exchange, which rebounded 12% over the past quarter, did not seem to want to go higher in view of the risks weighing on economic growth. But everything changed in the early afternoon when STAT, a reference in the United States on health topics, said that the American pharmaceutical group Pfizer had released positive clinical data regarding its candidate vaccine against Covid-19 which it is developing with the German biotech BioNTech.
The Cac 40 finished down 0.18% to 4,926.94 points, in a trade volume of 3.2 billion euros, while, on Wall Street, the Dow Jones slips 0.16% despite the 5% increase in Pfizer.
According to the news site, the vaccine in question has stimulated the immune response in healthy patients, with some side effects, however (such as high doses of fever). STAT points out that it is not yet certain that high antibody levels cause immunity to the coronavirus; To find out, large-scale tests are necessary (these studies should start this summer).
Wrong direction
Last night, epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, who advised the Trump administration at the height of the health crisis, said there was no guarantee that a vaccine would be ready early next year.
Doctor Fauci, director of the American National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, warned the senators on the management of the crisis, which he believes is going in the wrong direction. The United States has 4% of the world’s population, but 25% of coronavirus infections. “We are at over 40,000 new cases a day. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hit 100,000 cases a day if that doesn’t change ”, he warned.
Eight US states yesterday recorded a record number of new cases. These are Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
The stocks of the companies most dependent on the good health of the world economy are those which fell the most on the Paris Stock Exchange. Renault lost almost 5%. Peugeot and Accor dropped more than 2%. It would be better for these actions if the epidemic was under control in the United States, the world’s largest economy. It would also be better for them if the trade war between the United States and China ended. However, it is not the case. According to the Financial Times, Apple has decided to block updates to tens of thousands of mobile games from the Chinese App Store.
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