Daily summary:
- Dow Jones (SYMBOL: DIA) rose 0.6%. The S&P 500 (SYMBOL: SPY) and Nasdaq-100 (SYMBOL: QQQ) rose 0.86% and 2%, respectively.
- Gold (SYMBOL: GLD) 2.8% hit another record high as tensions continue to rise between China and the U.S. Coronavirus cases hit new highs in America, and a resurgence of new cases in China and Europe added more uncertainty to the global recovery, which has been uneven and full of setbacks.
- Moderna (SYMBOL: MRNA) has announced up to $472 million in additional funding from the U.S. federal government. The money is intended to support the clinical development, including an expanded Phase 3 Study that has just begun, of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate mRNA-1273. It comes on top of a previous $483 million award. The stock closed up 9%.
- AstraZeneca (SYMBOL: AZN) 1.7% has agreed to pay Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo up to $6 billion to jointly develop and commercialize a cancer drug it says could help redefine the way the disease is treated. It is AstraZeneca’s latest push into oncology, while the British drug maker is also working on a coronavirus vaccine.
- Chip makers were also in the news after Intel Corporation (SYMBOL: INTC) stoked concerns about production of its next-generation chip, pushing its shares down another 2% on Monday after a sell-off last week. Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (symbol: TSM) rose more than 11%.
- The chief executives of tech giants Amazon (Jeff Bezos) (SYMBOL: AMZN) 1.8% , Apple (Tim Cook) (SYMBOL: AAPL) 2.8%, Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) (SYMBOL: FB) 1.6% , and Google (Sundar Pichai) (SYMBOL: GOOGL) 1.7%, will virtually testify before Congress at noon ET on Wednesday.
- U.S. drugmaker Pfizer (SYMBOL: PFE) 1.6% and German biotech BioNTech (SYMBOL: BNTX) 8.3% said they began their late-stage human trial for a potential coronavirus vaccine on Monday as pharmaceutical companies race to win regulatory approval before the end of the year.
What to look for:
- The Federal Reserve starts its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, followed by an interest rate decision on Wednesday. The FOMC decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0-0.25% at its last meeting in June as it continued to deal with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the U.S. economy.
- Republicans were set to unveil their own proposals for another round of economic stimulus as the U.S. struggled to get a grip on the coronavirus. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the package would include $1 trillion of relief. That is expected to include another round of $1,200 checks to individual taxpayers who earn below a certain income. It is also expected to include an extension of emergency unemployment checks, though at a lower amount than the current $600 a week pandemic unemployment assistance.
Critical week for markets as some of the biggest companies report earnings:
BMC: before market open, AMC: after market close.
Tuesday:
BMC: 3M co. (Symbol: MMM), Pfizer (Symbol: PFE), Altria group Inc. (Symbol: MO), Yandex (Symbol: YNDX), McDonald’s (Symbol: MCD).AMC: Advanced Micro Devices (Symbol: AMD), Starbucks (Symbol: Sbux), Visa (Symbol: V), Ebay (Symbol: EBAY).