By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened the week higher, on news that a third experimental vaccine to treat the Covid-19 vaccine had registered an effectiveness rate of 90% or more. That helped to mitigate concerns that the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday will only propel the current wave of the pandemic even more violently through the U.S.
By 9:40 AM ET (1440 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 215 points, or 0.7% at 29,478 points. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite were both up 0.6%.
On a light day for data, sentiment was mainly informed by the news that AstraZeneca's experimental drug had proven effective in up to 90% of cases, according to preliminary data from a late-stage trial. The message was slightly blunted by the company also saying that a parallel regimen in the test had shown a lower success rate of 62%. As the less effective regiment requires more vaccine resources of the two, it's not clear why the less effective regimen will be relevant going forward. AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) ADRs were down 2.6% in early trade.
As with most releases on the progress of vaccine development, the news helped the stocks worst hit by this year's lockdowns and consumer fear of infection. The Dow Jones Airlines index rose 2.0%. while department store stock also leaped: Macy’s (NYSE:M) stock and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) stock both hit five-month highs, rising 6.7% and 5.2% respectively. Kohls (NYSE:KSS) stock rose 2.4% but failed to post a new high.
By the same token, stay-at-home stock suffered: Zoom Video (NASDAQ:ZM) stock fell 4.2% while Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON) stock fell 3.2%. Big Tech names such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) all edged down slightly, as money that had sought safety in such names earlier in the year ventured out in search of more attractively-valued ones.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) said in a strategy note that they expect the rotation into cyclical and value stocks to continue broadly, if not smoothly, as hopes for a global economic rebound in 2021 solidify.
"We would use any volatility to re-risk as markets are likely to focus increasingly on the recovery next year," global equity strategy chief Christian Mueller-Glissmanm wrote.