Vaccine News Has Markets Going 'Bananas'

The stock market had been poised for a decent jump on Monday, with Dow futures up 400 points in the early morning. Then came Pfizer's big news that its vaccine in late-stage trials appears to be 90% effective in preventing COVID infections. That sent futures absolutely soaring, and the Dow is now poised to rise 1,500 points at the opening bell—a surge of more than 5%, reports MarketWatch. The benchmark S&P 500 was on track to rise 3.5%, notes the Wall Street Journal.

Markets around the world were similarly going "bananas," per a tweet from CNBC reporter Carl Quintanilla, which includes a snapshot of the numbers. The Pfizer results are preliminary, but a quote at CNBC sums up the sentiment on Wall Street, at least for now: "Amazing news from Pfizer with 90% efficacy," writes Peter Boockvar of Bleakley Advisory Group. "This hopefully is the beginning of the end of our fight" against COVID.