New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange moved forward on Wednesday for its penultimate session of the year, supported by the announcement of a new vaccine available in the United Kingdom against Covid-19.

At 3:00 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones advanced 0.53% in the territories to a new record.

The Nasdaq gained 0.36% and the S&P 500 rose 0.45%.

The day before, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 0.22% to 30,335.67 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, had dropped 0.38% to 12,850.22 points and the extended S&P 500 index had fallen 0.22% to 3,727.04 points.

"Persistent optimism over vaccines outweighs the worsening epidemic," Wells Fargo analysts said.

Investor morale is supported by the fact that "British regulators were the first to approve AstraZeneca's vaccine against Covid-19," they added.

The United Kingdom indeed became the first country on Wednesday to authorize AstraZeneca's vaccine, giving a boost to the vaccination campaign in the face of the surge in Covid-19 cases.

The coronavirus has killed at least 1,791,033 people worldwide and infected more than 81 million, according to an AFP count.

This vaccine, developed by the British group with the University of Oxford, was eagerly awaited for practical reasons: much less expensive than the one already distributed, it can be stored at the temperature of a refrigerator which facilitates vaccination at large scale.

It will be used from January 4 in the United Kingdom, which has ordered 100 million doses.

AstraZneca stock rose nearly 1.18% shortly after the opening.

Among the actions of the day, Apple was hovering in balance after being unsuccessful in a copyright infringement lawsuit against a computer security company.

Intel lost 1.49% after a sharp increase the day before, while an activist shareholder advocates the sale of assets within the manufacturer of microprocessors.

Caterpillar climbed almost 3% after favorable comments from analysts.

In the bond market, the 10-year yield on Treasury bills was down slightly to 0.9331% from 0.9364% on Tuesday.

© 2020 AFP