New York (AFP)

Galvanized by the announcement of a future vaccine against Covid-19, the flagship index of the New York Stock Exchange finished sharply on Monday, breaking records in session, driven by a rebound in the sectors most affected by the pandemic.

The flagship index, the Dow Jones, closed up 2.95% at 29,157.97 points and the S&P 500, the most representative index of the US market, gained 1.17% to 3,550.65 points.

The Nasdaq, where technology stocks are concentrated, which took advantage of mobility restrictions due to the pandemic, on the other hand paid the price for investor arbitrations, yielding 1.53% to 11,713.78 points.

The title of Pfizer soared (+ 7.68%) while the American laboratory announced that it had developed with the German company BioNTech (+ 13.91%) a vaccine "effective" at 90% to prevent Covid infections -19, depending on the phase 3 large-scale trial in progress, the last step before an application for approval.

On Friday, Wall Street had ended in balance but recorded strong gains over the week, enthusiastically welcoming the possibility of a presidency of Democrat Joe Biden in the United States and a Senate dominated by the Republicans.

"Despite the fact that outgoing President Donald Trump is showing his intention to challenge the results (...), the clarity of the elections and the optimistic data on vaccines have boosted investor morale," said analysts at Wells Fargo.

Finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the prospect of a seemingly very effective vaccine, the actions of airlines, cruise lines, hotel and transport groups had their best day for a long time.

- Better than a flu shot -

This advertised "90%" rate of effectiveness is "much higher than anything experts predicted. Most flu shots have a 30% effectiveness rate and you get vaccinated!" Ablin from Cresset Wealth.

Investors therefore flocked to the titles, stranded very low for weeks, of airlines like American Airlines (+ 15.18%) or United Airlines (+ 19.15%) or even the cruise line Carnival (+39.22 %).

These companies "which one wondered how they were going to survive while they were losing cash every day will finally be able to recover," said Jack Ablin.

"For investors, this is a clear signal that they can bet again on these cyclical and vulnerable stocks," he added.

The value of these securities remained however on Monday less than half of their level before the pandemic.

Disney, whose amusement parks have fired in full force because of the pandemic, has regained its colors (+ 11.87%), as have the hotel groups with + 19.77% for Hyatt and + 13.87% for Marriott among others.

Back in the balance, the actions of companies that have so far benefited from the pandemic such as Amazon (-5.06%) or especially the Zoom videoconferencing service (-17.37%) suffered on Monday.

"Zoom went public in April 2019, at $ 38 (per share), and grossed up to $ 600," said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management.

"This growth was not sustainable," he concluded.

© 2020 AFP