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News this morning that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) and BioNTech (BNTX - Free Report) has been officially approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) have sent markets higher to start a new week of trading. Led by shares of BioNTech, which gained +9.6% on the day, the Nasdaq zoomed ahead to its single-best trading day since May 20th and finished at a brand new all-time high close, +228 points or +1.55% to 14,942.
The Dow had gained more than 300 points at session highs today, but wound up +215 points, +0.61%, on the day. Pfizer gained 2.5% for the session. The S&P 500, which was on-track for a new all-time high close, fell slightly short, +0.85%. The Russell 2000, which had lagged the other main indexes over the last month or two, rose +1.88% on the day.
Energy was the top sector for Monday, shedding off a six-day losing streak to grow +3.8% on the day. As we know, energy prices are directly affected by society’s ability to successfully combat the coronavirus, and the FDA approval brings with it hopes that many more Americans will at last come forward to receive their vaccine. Both Marathon (MRO - Free Report) and Baker Hughes (BKR - Free Report) gained more than 5% today.
This morning’s PMI prints for August came in below expectations on both Manufacturing and Services, with Manufacturing following up July’s record-high 63.4 dipping to 61.2 while Services underperformed a bit more significantly: 55.2 versus 59.9 last time around. In fairness, the July Manufacturing PMI set an all-time high for a month, so coming down a little from there still suggests robust Manufacturing strength. Services may be showing a little hesitation we’ve seen with the rise of the Delta variant.
Enterprise network security company Palo Alto Networks (PANW - Free Report) is up +9.5% in late trading on its fiscal Q4 earnings report after the closing bell: $1.60 per share easily outshone the $1.44 in the Zacks consensus, while $1.28 billion in bookings grew 28% year over year and improved on the $1.17 billion expected. Next-quarter revenue guidance was raised, and full-year 2022 revenues are already nicely ahead of expectations.
This has swung the chip services firm to the positive on the trading year. We had seen Palo Alto take a break from the near 40% gains from the year-ago quarter. The company also has no reported misses on earnings going back to fiscal Q2 2014, making it a true earnings all-star.
Image: Bigstock
Markets Surge on Pfizer Vax Approval
News this morning that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) and BioNTech (BNTX - Free Report) has been officially approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) have sent markets higher to start a new week of trading. Led by shares of BioNTech, which gained +9.6% on the day, the Nasdaq zoomed ahead to its single-best trading day since May 20th and finished at a brand new all-time high close, +228 points or +1.55% to 14,942.
The Dow had gained more than 300 points at session highs today, but wound up +215 points, +0.61%, on the day. Pfizer gained 2.5% for the session. The S&P 500, which was on-track for a new all-time high close, fell slightly short, +0.85%. The Russell 2000, which had lagged the other main indexes over the last month or two, rose +1.88% on the day.
Energy was the top sector for Monday, shedding off a six-day losing streak to grow +3.8% on the day. As we know, energy prices are directly affected by society’s ability to successfully combat the coronavirus, and the FDA approval brings with it hopes that many more Americans will at last come forward to receive their vaccine. Both Marathon (MRO - Free Report) and Baker Hughes (BKR - Free Report) gained more than 5% today.
This morning’s PMI prints for August came in below expectations on both Manufacturing and Services, with Manufacturing following up July’s record-high 63.4 dipping to 61.2 while Services underperformed a bit more significantly: 55.2 versus 59.9 last time around. In fairness, the July Manufacturing PMI set an all-time high for a month, so coming down a little from there still suggests robust Manufacturing strength. Services may be showing a little hesitation we’ve seen with the rise of the Delta variant.
Enterprise network security company Palo Alto Networks (PANW - Free Report) is up +9.5% in late trading on its fiscal Q4 earnings report after the closing bell: $1.60 per share easily outshone the $1.44 in the Zacks consensus, while $1.28 billion in bookings grew 28% year over year and improved on the $1.17 billion expected. Next-quarter revenue guidance was raised, and full-year 2022 revenues are already nicely ahead of expectations.
This has swung the chip services firm to the positive on the trading year. We had seen Palo Alto take a break from the near 40% gains from the year-ago quarter. The company also has no reported misses on earnings going back to fiscal Q2 2014, making it a true earnings all-star.
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