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New Wall St. records on hiring surge, Pfizer pill
Upbeat news on the economy and a drug to fight the health crisis kept Wall Street’s winning streak of record highs intact.The Dow rallied 203 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq jumped to their seventh consecutive record closing highs.With the S&P now up 25 percent year-do-date, the strength of this stock market is quite remarkable, says Bowersock Capital Partners’ Emily Hill.”It’s been a long time since stocks have been this overvalued, so I continue to be fairly astounded by the continued rise in the market.”You can add the economy to the list of things going right for the stock market. For the first time in three months, U.S. hiring exceeded expectations. Employers added 531,000 new jobs in October and September’s figure was upwardly revised. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.6 percent and wages were up 4.8 percent from a year ago. One negative: workers who moved out of the workforce don’t appear to be in a rush to come back. The so-called labor participation rate remains subdued.Pfizer’s news on a trial COVID-19 treatment infused even more confidence into the market. The drugmaker said its experimental antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 was shown to cut the chances of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of developing severe disease by 89 percent. The trial results were so good, Pfizer stopped the trial early and will seek emergency authorization use. Pfizer is second with a possible COVID drug. Merck also has a drug that’s up for approval. Shares of Pfizer surged 10 percent.Travel, leisure and entertainment stocks rallied on prospects a COVID treatment could entice people to spend more time out of the house.Looking at a few names: Delta Air Lines jumped 8 percent…Movie theater chain Cinemark rallied more than 8 percent.All that optimism surrounding the economic reopening helped investors overlook disappointing sales and a weak outlook from Shake Shack. Shares of the high-end burger chain surged more than 16 percent.
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