Stocks rise broadly; Pfizer rises after FDA approves vaccine
Stocks were solidly higher in early trading Monday, led by gains in a broad range of technology, financial and health care companies
TOKYO — Stocks were solidly higher in early trading Monday, led by gains in a broad range of technology, financial and health care companies.
Energy stocks rose as the price of crude oil recovered some of the ground it hast lost in recent days.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 10:20 a.m. Eastern. The benchmark index is coming off its first weekly loss since July.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% and the Nasdaq composite was up 1.1%.
Pfizer rose more than 2% after the Food & Drug Administration gave full approval to its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine had been under an emergency use authorization since December, but the full approval could convince some reluctant Americans to now get their shot and will likely give local authorities the legal backing to impose mandates.
BioNTech, a German drug manufacturer which co-developed the vaccine with Pfizer, rose nearly 10% on the news. Moderna, which developed a similar vaccine that uses the same technology, jumped 10%.
Investors will be looking to the Federal Reserve, where the Kansas City Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, starts later this week. It will likely provide Wall Street with more insight into what the Fed may do about inflation.
Last week, minutes from the most recent Fed meeting showed that officials had discussed reducing the central bank’s bond-buying program later this year to start winding down some of the emergency measures that were implemented during the pandemic. But they stopped short of setting a firm timeline.
