On Monday November 9, 2020, US pharmaceutical group Pfizer declared that its vaccine was "90% effective" against Covid-19. Following this announcement, the world's stock markets soared, with the Dow Jones rising by over 5%. Here's a closer look at the stock market rebound.
A stock market rebound triggered by the U.S. presidential election
Even before the announcement of the victory of Joe Biden, the new President-elect of the United States, the world's stock markets enjoyed their best performance in 6 months last week, with major indices up 7-9%.
Following Pfizer's announcement of the efficacy of its vaccine against the Sars-CoV-2 virus, Pfizer shares soared by 8.86%. The same trend was observed for pharmaceutical groups Johnson & Johnson, which gained 3.80%, and Merck with +4%.
In the United States, the Dow Jones climbed 5.63%, followed by the European stock markets. The Paris Bourse was up 5.46% and Milan 5.48%. Frankfurt (+5.56%) and London (5.05%) followed suit.
Pfizer's announcement benefited the sectors most affected by the health crisis, such as aeronautics and travel:
- Airbus surges 22
- Easyjet by 25
- Lufthansa by 30
Banks also benefited from this rebound, with +18% for the Société Générale group and +17% for BNP Paribas.
On the other hand, the companies benefiting most from the restrictive measures linked to the circulation of the virus saw their shares fall. These include Zoom (-14.2%), Amazon (-3.92%) and Netflix (-8.19%).
Covid-19 vaccine in phase 3 clinical trial
The vaccine developed by Pfizer (USA) and BioNTech (Germany) is currently in phase 3 clinical trials, the final stage before regulatory approval.
The announcement of 90% efficacy is based on the first interim analysis of the Phase 3 trial, which compares the number of infected participants in the vaccine group with those in the placebo group. Results were reported 28 days after the first injection, and 7 days after the second.
The phase 3 trial of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine candidate began in July, and involves 43,538 participants. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement, " More than eight months after the start of the worst pandemic in more than a century, we believe this milestone represents a significant step forward for the world in our battle against Covid-19. "
If the vaccine is licensed, Pfizer and BioNTech plan to market no fewer than 1.3 billion doses worldwide in 2021, and 50 million by the end of 2020.