COVID News Can’t Break S&P 500
Posted on 04/12/2021
U.S. equities floated near record levels on Monday. In a wavering session, the S&P 500 index fell less than 1 point to 4,127.99 after closing at a record high in the previous session. The S&P 500 ended the session roughly flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) slipped 55.20 points, or 0.2%, to 33,745.40, also dropping from a record high. The first-quarter earnings reporting season begins this week.
According to a study from researchers at Tel Aviv University and Clalit Health Services, the largest health-care organization in Israel, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is not as effective against the COVID-19 variant (B.1.351) first discovered in South Africa. The Israeli study examined nearly 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 after receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. The data, published online over the weekend, suggest that the B.1.351 variant is better able to make the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine less effective in protection. On the same day, the World Health Organization (WHO) disclosed the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic is now “growing exponentially,” with more than 4.4 million new COVID-19 cases reported over the last week.
