US pre-open: Futures point to solid gains as Moderna updates on vaccine candidate
Wall Street futures had stocks turning in some early gains ahead of the bell on Monday as the Dow Jones looked set to open at an all-time high thanks to further positive vaccine headlines.
As of 1215 GMT, Dow Jones futures were up 1.69%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 1.13% and 0.08% firmer, respectively.
The Dow closed 399.64 points higher on Friday, closing out a week filled with vaccine hopes and the announcement of a new president-elect on a high note.
The blue-chip index also looked set to continue on its upward trajectory on Monday despite US Covid-19 cases passing 11.0m over the weekend, according to Johns Hopkins University, with a fresh daily record of 184,000 new daily cases, as Moderna was in focus after revealing that its vaccine candidate had shown itself to be 94.5% effective at protecting people from Covid-19 and was proven to last for up to 30 days in household refrigerators and at room temperature for as much as 12 hours.
SpreadEx's Connor Campbell said: "The Dow Jones is on track to open at a record high. With the futures pencilling in a 300 point rise, the Dow is set to start the week at 29,770, finally making good on the all-time high intraday levels struck this time last week."
While Pfizer and BioNTech may have directed much of last week's limelight away from the US presidential election with news that their Covid-19 vaccine candidate was as much as 90% effective in treating the coronavirus, BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin has now also claimed that transmission of Covid-19 would be reduced by "maybe 50%" following the vaccine rollout, leading to a "dramatic reduction of the pandemic spread".
Also in corporate news, travel stocks were in the green yet again as investors grew increasingly confident about an eventual return to normal economic activity.
On the macro front, November's New York Empire State manufacturing index will be released at 1330 GMT, while Federal Reserve presidents Richard Clarida and Mary Daly will deliver comments at 1700 GMT and 1845 GMT, respectively.