New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended in the green on Monday, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 stock indexes to record highs, in the wake of biotech firm Moderna's announcement that its vaccine was 94.5% effective against Covid-19.

The DJIA rose 1.60% to 29,950.44 points, beating its previous February high.

The broader S&P 500 index gained 1.16% to 3,626.91 points, improving its record from last Friday.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, rose 0.80% to 11,924.13 points.

According to Art Hogan of National Securities, "the good news around vaccines and treatments for the virus has been the main driver" of the market in recent weeks.

Last Monday, the Pfizer and BioNtech laboratories claimed that the vaccine they are jointly developing reduced the risk of contracting the disease by 90%, which had made the New York Stock Exchange jump.

These developments give investors hope that "the other end of the pandemic and a return to normalcy" are near, says Hogan.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has himself praised Wall Street's good form.

"THE STOCK MARKET CLOSE TO 30,000 THANKS TO THE NEWS ON THE VACCINE," he tweeted in capital letters, referring to the level which the Dow Jones approached on Monday.

Moderna's stock jumped almost 10%.

Among the beneficiaries of this wave of optimism, the sectors dependent on an economic recovery have displayed ironic health: the airline company United Airlines (+ 5.16%), the cruise line Carnival (+ 9.74% ) or the group of hotels and casinos MGM Resorts International (+ 2.36%) ended up.

On the other hand, some companies that took advantage of the confinements and the generalization of home work fell back, including the Zoom videoconferencing platform (-1.19%).

Despite the general optimism of the market and the hope of a soon-available vaccine, some analysts remained cautious.

"There are still a lot of concerns at a time when cases of contamination soar and more and more American states are raising the possibility of shutting down their economy," said JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade.

"Containment could quite continue to affect the market and weigh on short-term financial results," he adds.

Several large retail groups must also share their quarterly profits and turnover this week, including Walmart (+ 1.26%), Target (+ 1.41%) and Home Depot (+ 0.87 %).

The latter announced Monday the upcoming acquisition for around $ 8 billion of the distributor HD Supply, an operation allowing it to become a leader in after-sales services.

© 2020 AFP