Pfizer made it! On 9 November, Pfizer made an announcement declaring positive interim results from a COVID-19 vaccine phase III trial. In the press release, Pfizer said they had identified 94 cases of COVID-19 among more than 40,000 trial participants. While the company did not disclose how many of those were in the controlled group, they claimed the vaccine was more than 90% effective. The trial will continue until a total of 164 COVID-19 cases are detected. The effective rate may fall after the trial is complete and all the data has been analysed.
Source: How Close Is The World To A Coronavirus Vaccine? - Statista
This news brings optimism to the world and the stock market. However, will the stock market go up upon hearing this news? It depends on the sectors. Broadly speaking, the COVID-19 winners, companies which benefit from lockdown and work from home scheme, suffered the biggest fall. The COVID-19 losers, for example travel-related companies, rebounded vigorously.
While the vaccine trial is not yet completed, vaccine development news will continue to create market volatility. But the market movement on 9 November (in US or 10 November in Australia) is a good example of how the market will react once the economy approaches to normal. We are sure the vaccine will come eventually. We have prepared a list of COVID-19 losers long ago. This list is crucial for investors to react to vaccine development news, like on 9 November. Of course, investors should be aware that not every COVID-19 loser will rebound. Investors need to analyse each stock before any investment decisions are made. But we believe this is a good starting point.
Source: Rich Countries Have Bought up the Bulk of Covid-19 Vaccines - Statista
A vaccine is crucial for us to return to normal life. Businesses want to reopen. We want to leave our home for shopping, dining and travelling. However, it’s worthwhile to note that even when the vaccine is developed, it is estimated that it will take more than one year to supply the world.
Till next week happy investing.
Michael and Kenny