More upbeat headlines around progress on coronavirus vaccines and fresh gains for technology heavyweights underpinned the the latest gains for US equity markets albeit trading volumes were light - Dow eked out a +9-point gain, recovering from an earlier -150-point decline. Dow member Pfizer Inc (up +0.69%) and BioNTech SE (+3.46%) reported early positive data on a joint coronavirus vaccine candidate, saying the drug “elicited high, dose level-dependent SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing titers and RBD-binding IgG concentrations after the second dose.” Pfizer shares rose 0.6% on the news while BioNTech traded 3.4% higher. The broader S&P500 gained +0.84% albeit Consumer Discretionary (up +3.14%), Information Technology (+2.58%) and Communications Services (+1.25%) were the only primary sectors to advance. Energy (down -1.73%) was the worst performing primary sector. Airlines were under pressure (American Airlines Group Inc down -3.69%, United Airlines Holdings Inc -4.69% and Delta Air Lines Inc -3.07%) after data from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration showed travel demand declined last week, snapping a 12-week increase. The technology-centric NASDAQ outperformed with +2.51% rally (to 10,767.09), booking its largest one-day percentage climb since 29 April and 28th record closing high of 2020. Amazon.com Inc jumped +7.93% (to US$3,196.84), with analysts at Goldman Sachs hiking their price target to US$3,800 per share and the highest among analysts covering the e-commerce giant. Analysts at MKM Partners also lifted their target price +33% to US$3,350 and citing the company as a two-pronged beneficiary of the COVID-19 pandemic given the accelerated shift to on-line shopping and towards cloud computing. The rise came after Amazon logged its worst weekly performance since the week ended 28 February - and first weekly loss in eleven weeks – last week with a -7.4% decline. Amazon is up +70.2% year-to-date. Texas Instruments Inc gained +2.01% to settle at a record closing high (US$136.58) ahead of their result tonight AEST. In merger and acquisition (M&A) news, Chevron Corp (down -2.2%) confirmed an all-stock ~US$5B deal to acquire Noble Energy Inc (up +5.44%)
