Dow climbs 328 points amid reports Janet Yellen will be named treasury secretary
- US stocks gained on Monday amid reports that President-elect Joe Biden would select former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be his treasury secretary.
- Earlier, investors cheered results from trials of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate, this time from AstraZeneca.
- AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine demonstrated an average efficacy rate of 70%, making it the third company to have announced vaccine data surpassing the Food and Drug Administration's requirement of 50% effectiveness.
- Watch major indexes update live here.
US stocks jumped on Monday afternoon amid reports that President-elect Joe Biden would select former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be his treasury secretary.
The news that a familiar face for investors would run the Treasury Department likely helped to remove some uncertainty from the market as investors weigh who else will fill Biden's Cabinet.
Earlier, investors received news that a third COVID-19 vaccine candidate demonstrated an efficacy rate above the 50% threshold set by the Food and Drug Administration.
AstraZeneca said on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, demonstrated an average efficacy rate of 70%. It said that while one dosing regimen was found to have an efficacy rate of 90%, another demonstrated an efficacy rate of 62%.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET market close on Monday:
- S&P 500: 3,577.59, up 0.6%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 29,591.27, up 1.1% (328 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 11,880.63, up 0.2%
Americans could begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines as early as December 11, an advisor to the White House's Operation Warp Speed initiative said, adding that about 70% of the population could be immunized by the summer.
On Wall Street, BlackRock upgraded its outlook for US stocks to overweight, saying a COVID-19 vaccine would hasten the economic recovery in 2021.
Oil prices staged a rebound on Monday, hitting their highest levels since early September. The positive vaccine news suggested demand for oil could return sooner rather than later. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped as much as 2.9%, to $43.36 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, gained 2.6%, to $46.12 per barrel, at intraday highs.
Bitcoin's strong rally to above $18,000 helped spur a surge in other cryptocurrency assets like ether and Ripple over the weekend.
Snapchat surged as much as 7% after it launched Spotlight, a new platform to rival TikTok.