The Dow Jones futures gained on Wednesday morning. The S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures surged forward as well. However, the stock market rally pulled back after several days of gains as Covid-19 cases soared, and there was a slight uptick in deaths.
Investors focused on Facebook stock overnight after ad boycott organizers labeled a meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a disappointment. FB stock declined slightly.
Meanwhile, Tesla climbed up slightly, extending its huge advance from Tuesday. Chinese luxury EV rival Nio also surged toward a record high, amid Chinese EV sales data.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals and online bond platform MarketAxess cleared at least one buy point. Snapchat parent Snap’s stock skyrocketed to an all-time high as the U.S. contemplates whether to ban the popular TikTok app, owned by China’s Bytedance.
Novavax and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals also hit 52-week highs after getting U.S. government funding for their coronavirus treatments.
Overall, the Dow Jones futures rose by 0.1% vs. fair value, while the S&P 500 futures gained 0.2%, and the Nasdaq 100 futures soared by 0.5%.
The pandemic threatens the market’s rally. Coronavirus cases worldwide have surpassed 11.98 million. Covid-19 deaths are overall above 547,000.
In the U.S., infection cases have reached 3.09 million. While deaths have remained low, on Tuesday, they hit their highest level since June 10. The United States gained more than 55,000 coronavirus cases yesterday.
Will the companies start working on the vaccine gain?
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals signed a $450 million government contract to step up the production of its experimental antibody cocktail. The company’s two-antibody therapy is in late-stage trials as both a treatment and preventive measure for Covid-19.
Novavax will also get $1.6 billion in U.S. funding to support large-scale manufacturing of its virus vaccine candidate, which is also in trials.
Novavax stock rallied by 32% to its highest peak in nearly four years. On the other hand, Regeneron stock soared by 2.2% to 640.88 after hitting a record 653.53 intraday high. It closed slightly lower than the 646.43 aggressive entry.
