Markets were mixed on Friday.
The S&P 500 jumped 1.4 percent to close at a record high but the STOXX Europe 600 was flat and the Shanghai Composite fell 0.9 percent.
“This week’s positive vaccine news is a game-changer in our view, as it allows the market to look through the recent surge in COVID-19 cases to the impending end of the pandemic and broader reopening of the economy,” wrote Marko Kolanovic, JPMorgan’s head of macro quantitative and derivatives strategy.
Indeed, stocks rose in the US even as new restrictions are being imposed to suppress the spread of COVID-19.
“We are in a life-or-death situation, and if we don’t act right now, we cannot preserve the lives, we can’t keep saving lives, and we will absolutely crush our current health care system and infrastructure,” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico said in imposing a two-week stay-at-home order.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown ordered a two-week “freeze” starting Wednesday, under which all businesses will be required to close their offices to the public and mandate work-from-home “to the greatest extent possible.”
However, with deaths from COVID-19 having climbed to about 1,000 a day on average and projected to reach nearly 439,000 by 1 Mar, Dr Michael Fine, former director of Rhode Island’s Health Department, said: “Short of very profound lockdowns, I don’t think we have a chance of slowing the spread.”
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