Pfizer Vaccine Gives Stock Market Booming Day

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective.

Over 43,000 people volunteered to participate in the company’s vaccine trial. Pfizer Inc. and their partner BioNTech SE gave each volunteer either two doses of the vaccine or a placebo. The study showed that less than 10% of those infected were given the vaccine, whereas more than 90% who were infected were given the placebo.

“I think that likely, based on impact, this will be the greatest medical advance in the last 100 years,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNN.

Nearly 250,000 United States citizens have died from COVID-19 in 2020. Nationally, that number is nearly 1.25 million.

Company executives say that by the end of 2020, they will have produced enough doses to vaccinate between 15 and 20 million people.

“This is a historical moment,” Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer said to CNN.

With this announcement, some citizens are having hope, which can be seen in those who invest in the Stock Market.

Several areas of the Stock Market saw surges on Monday morning, including travel and hospitality. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruiseline Holdings and Carnival are three Cruise Line stocks that had their best days of 2020, finishing the day with an astonishing average 31.61 percent increase.

An increase in a stock price is due to demand in that stock. When demand is high, the price rises, showing that a large number of investors were purchasing shares of those three Cruise Line companies.

“I woke up and saw the news about the vaccine, and the first thing I did was checked my investing app and bought right when the market opened,” Alex Johnson said in an interview with Media Milwaukee.

Like several others, Johnson picked up investing as a hobby during the COVID-19 Pandemic. He said that he wishes he invested in travel stocks more before Pfizer’s announcement.

“I was planning on investing in these areas before a vaccine was released,” Johnson said. “I knew a day like this would come, but I did not expect it to be so soon.”

On March 12, 2020, the DOW Jones Industrial Index (DJIA) saw its fifth largest fall all-time. The DJIA is made up of 30 large publicly owned companies in the United States. Investors tend to use the DJIA and other sources as a basis for how the Stock Market is performing on a given day.

That fall came as COVID-19 was beginning to change the country, causing panic, confusion and fear among some United States citizens as the country began to shut down.

Lucas Scharrer told Media Milwaukee that he saw the collapse as an opportunity, putting money into the Stock Market and waiting for a day like Monday.

“Travel industries have taken the worst hit during the last six months and once people have the comfort of a vaccine, the industry will inevitably rebound since there will be a sense of safe travel once again,” Scharrer said.

Disney, American Airlines and MGM Resorts International were other popular stocks that saw over a ten percent increase in value Monday.

Johnson said that the stock market will be something to keep an eye on in the next couple of weeks and has advice for other investors.

“I think that investors are and should be super excited about where this could go down the road,” Johnson said. “We thought today was good, just imagine when a vaccine is official. If you haven’t bought yet, buy now while you still can.”

The Stock Market is open every weekday, excluding holidays, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET.