When the closing bell rang on Monday for the first time since most of the US mainstream media declared Biden the obvious winner of the election, the Dow Jones was nearly 3% higher than it had closed on Friday, when the outcome was still very much in question.
The Dow finished at 29,157.97, having gained 834.57 points on Monday. The S&P 500 also grew, adding 41.06 points to finish at 3,550.50 - a 1.17% gain. However, the Nasdaq Composite, which heavily reflects the information technology sector, fell on Monday, losing 181.45 points to close at 11,713.78 - a 1.53% loss.
Just after opening on Monday morning, all three indices were even higher than their closing levels, with the Dow reaching an all-time high for single-day gains of more than 1,600 points. The S&P 500 grew by 2.7% early-on, but fell later in the day.
While the possibility of a peaceful transfer of power greatly increased on Saturday, giving Monday traders new confidence, the news that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine Pfizer and BioNTech were producing could have an effectiveness of 90%, really sent the markets into the skies.
The Dow hit a major low late last month as COVID-19 cases grew sharply around the planet and European nations introduced new lockdown measures designed to curb the virus’ spread. The situation in the United States remains grim, with the country having added a million new cases in just 10 days’ time, but the possibility of a highly effective vaccine soon arriving to calm the chaos could soon mean an end to the social and economic turmoil that has characterized much of 2020.
In response, investors threw their money into the travel companies, retailers and banks likely to benefit from a return to some semblance of normality, with Carnival’s shares surging by 34% and American Airlines by 17%. Retailer Kohl’s grew by 20.1% and Bank of America by 15%.
However, tech companies that have several benefited by the push for remote access to resources via the internet created by the COVID-19 pandemic saw major losses on Monday at the signal that in-person interaction could soon resume. Netflix lost 7.58% while Zoom Video Communications lost 16.5% of its value and Peleton Interactive lost 17%. Another major loser was cleaner maker Clorox, which has benefited from the need to sterilize surfaces to prevent the virus’ spread. The company lost 9.69% of its value on Monday.
