Shocking, vaccine news push prices will rise on the third Monday. Although overwhelming, the Astrazeneca (LON:AZN) vaccine trial results have slowly pushed back air travel, financial and merchandise stocks once again.
Crossing the FTSE 100, the Rolls Royce rose 7.60%, while the IAG bouncing off about 5.50%. Meanwhile, mining and oil stocks stole the show. Glencore and BHP collected 2.37% and 2.25% respectively, while BP jumped to 3.70% and shell stocks spiked around 4.5%. Although they also enjoyed shares in Financial Services, Lloyds rose 3.87% and Aviva’s shares rose 2.08%.
After waiting three weeks to see where the vaccine competitors stand, AstraZeneca’s latest results provide a shorter boost than Janssen’s trial data, which has not yet been published. For now, IG’s senior market analyst Joshua Mahony is going through a somewhat calmer update.
“As Astrazeneca has dropped by 2% in the early stages of trade, it is clear that the market is somewhat overwhelming after the largest of the two trials offered 70% effectiveness.”
“Unfortunately for AstraZeneca, the market has become accustomed to an effectiveness rate of nearly 95%, thanks to the announcements of Pfizer and Moderna.”
“The company has naturally focused on the 90% efficacy rate seen when a full dose of half of the dose continues after a month, but a significant decrease in sample size makes it less reliable with the findings.”
A break from lockdown and the reopening of non-essential shops at Christmas gave some boosts, but as trading closed on Tuesday, disappointing AstraZeneca vaccine data left European stocks in Huff.
The eurozone index was broad and flat, with DAX down 0.078% and CAC down 0.068%. Meanwhile, FTSE led the Western losers, falling 0.28% despite positive moves in air travel, finance and commodity stocks. On the pond, the Dow Jones increased by 0.67%, while the Nasdaq held back a low edge with a loss of 0.014%.
