Dow futures spike 5 percent as vaccine news, Biden victory rev up stock markets

“I think the 90% success rate in trials is on the high end of street expectations given the 40-60% success for seasonal flu vaccines,” Wayne Wicker, chief investment officer at Vantagepoint Funds, said in an email to The Post. “This is going to give a real boost to a broader range of stocks beyond technology as shown by the outsized gains in the Dow premarket. With greater clarity on both political and health issues, this should provide additional momentum in the short run.”

Biden applauded Pfizer’s breakthrough in a statement Monday, but warned that the end of the battle against Covid-19 is still months away. “Today’s news does not change this urgent reality,” Biden said. “Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, contact tracing, hand washing and other measures to keep themselves safe well into next year.”

S&P 500 futures soared 4 percent while Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.7 percent. Companies whose stocks have been pummeled by the pandemic, especially in travel, saw outrageous gains: Carnival cruise stock leapt 33 percent in early trading, while American Airlines rose 26 percent and Delta climbed 18 percent.

The MSCI All-Country World Index hit a new high on Monday as equities soared overseas. Asian markets advanced across the board, led by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which swelled 2.1 percent to a record high, and the Shanghai Composite index, which gained 1.8 percent. European markets soared in midday trading, led by France’s CAC 40, which advanced 6.6 percent, and Germany’s DAX, which gained 5.5 percent. The benchmark Stoxx 600 index was up 4.1 percent.

The vaccine news comes amid another surge in coronavirus infections, one that has sparked renewed business and travel restrictions in some countries. If the virus cannot be tamed, it could trigger the renewal of widespread shutdowns that caused a massive economic contraction and ushered the United States into recession. On Sunday, global infections topped 50 million, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.”

Oil markets, which endured a choppy end to last week, were buoyant Monday, as Pfizer’s news spurred hopes of an quicker return to normalcy. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, soared nearly 10 percent to trade at $42.74 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, advanced 11 percent to trade at $43.35 a barrel.

Investors also reacted to Biden’s victory, largely dismissing President Trump’s refusal to concede. On Monday, the president-elect announced the members of his coronavirus task force, a group composed of doctors and public health experts, signaling his intent to take a science-based approach to bring the pandemic that has killed more than 237,000 Americans under control.

“While the threat of legal action by Trump could delay proceedings, investors are pricing in almost zero chance for the incumbent to destabilize affairs” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, wrote in comments emailed to The Post “That means the market is in risk-on mood.”

In the presidential campaign’s final days, analysts had begun talking of a “Blue Wave” that would deliver Democratic control at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and the possibility Biden would produce a multitrillion-dollar stimulus bill early next year that would revive the slowing recovery.

Stocks soared last week as the prospect of a GOP-controlled Senate reduced the likelihood that a Biden presidency would usher in tax increases and sweeping regulatory changes, which many analysts considered “the goldilocks outcome” in the U.S. presidential contest. But the balance of power won’t be decided until January, when Georgia will hold runoff elections for both Senate seats.