NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow rallied sharply but closed shy of their records on Monday as investors bet that a full economic reopening was finally in sight following the first positive data from a late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial.
The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data
Spot prices beat a sharp retreat from a near two-month peak of $1,965.33 hit earlier in the session amid a weaker dollar
Experts caution against hyping early results
Firms hit hardest by restrictions made most gains, with airlines trading 30% higher
Pfizer's vaccine is not necessarily great news for India
President-elect Joe Biden said the news was excellent but did not change the fact that face masks, social distancing would be needed well into next year
The companies said the vaccine was more than 90% effective and they have so far found no serious safety concerns, priming it for possible speedy regulatory approvals
The comments followed a statement earlier on Monday by vaccine developers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, who said their experimental Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective
He labeled as "great news" Pfizer Inc's announcement on Monday that its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) started a rolling review of data from trials on the vaccine in early October.
Pfizer and BioNTech SE are first drugmakers to show successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine
The findings are based on an interim analysis conducted after 94 participants contracted Covid-19
An independent panel will conduct the first analysis when it reaches 32 infections.
Moderna said earlier this month it was going to apply for real-time reviews of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine to Europe, following rolling reviews of shots of its rivals Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca
Pfizer said in a presentation that the independent monitor which will determine whether or not the trial has been successful has not conducted any interim efficacy analyses yet
People around the world are counting on a vaccine to control the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than a million people and ravaged the global economy
Safety review dictates the timeline, with the Food and Drug Administration requiring that at least half the people in the study be watched for side effects for two months
It would be the first time that Pfizer or any other leading Western vaccine developer provided such a specific timeline.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The New Zealand government signed a deal on Monday to buy 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Germany's BioNTech <22UAy.F>, with delivery potentially as early as the first quarter of 2021.