Wall Street ends up, the anti-covid pill trumps all the rest

The New York Stock Exchange ended up on Friday, excited by the news of the possible arrival of an anti-Covid pill, which outweighed fears of inflation and the crisis in the US Congress.

The Dow Jones rose 1.43% to 34,326.46 points, the Nasdaq index, with its strong technological focus, gained 0.82% to 14,556.70 points, and the extended S&P 500 index, 1.15% at 4,357.04 points.

After a start to the session in the green, the clues all briefly went into the red, before moving forward.

The market has accepted the announcement of the American laboratory Merck, whose clinical trials on its anti-Covid pill molnupiravir have shown that it reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50%.

The group that calls itself MSD outside the United States wants to apply “as soon as possible” for an emergency authorization for a marketing.

“A lot of people, not just investors, are waiting for a drug against Covid,” commented Kim Forrest, investment manager at management firm Bokeh Capital Partners, who put the acceleration on Wall Street to most of it on Merck’s account.

For her, the advance of the indices would have been even more consequent in the absence of “other things which weigh on the market”, primarily inflation and the procrastination in Congress.

Democrats and Republicans can not agree on raising the debt ceiling of the United States, which threatens to default on October 18 for lack of agreement.

In recent hours, the rates of treasury bills whose maturity comes just after this date have jumped, a sign that investors, nervous, are trying to get rid of them.

Another element that initially displeased operators, the publication of a very high inflation figure (4.3% over one year) by the Department of Commerce.

Over one month, the price acceleration was greater than expected. But for Karl Haeling, of the LBBW bank, this is a somewhat old figure, relating to August, the impact of which has, therefore, been moderate on investor morale.

The rates of US 10-year government bonds have also continued to ease, a sign that fears related to US inflation have passed, at least a few hours, in the background. Their yield was 1.46%, against 1.50% the day before.

For Art Hogan, head of strategy at National Securities, certain macroeconomic indicators also helped give indices a little boost ahead of the weekend.

Among the consumer confidence index (established by the University of Michigan), which came out up in September and above expectations.

In the table of values, Merck, which had a good session (+ 8.37% to 81.40 dollars), has influenced many companies.

Manufacturer of vaccines against the coronavirus, the Moderna laboratory suffered (-11.37% to 341.09 dollars), after having experienced a stratospheric trajectory for a year.

On the other hand, the cruise sector shone, thanks to Norwegian Cruise Line (+ 5.93%), Carnival Corporation (+ 4.32%) and Royal Caribbean (+ 3.80%).

Air transport, too, has progressed, like United Airlines (+ 7.86% to 51.31 dollars), American Airlines (+ 5.51% to 21.65 dollars) or Delta Air Lines ( + 6.50% to 45.38 dollars).

For Art Hogan, the prospect of a possible Covid 19 drug “changes the way people see the pace of reopening” of the economy.

Penalized by the pandemic due to the closure of its parks, Disney took advantage of the trend (+ 4.04% to 176.01 dollars). Thursday evening, the entertainment giant had also announced an amicable agreement with the actress Scarlett Johansson, who had sued him for having released the film “Black Widow” simultaneously in theaters and on its online video platform.

Electric vehicle maker Lordstown Motors slipped (-18.30% to $ 6.52) after it announced the sale of its assembly plant in Ohio to Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, which is going also take a stake in the start-up.

Nasdaq

tu / vmt / nth