NEW YORK: Wall Street followed world equity indexes to record levels and crude prices surged on Monday, as promising developments toward a coronavirus vaccine and the prospect of improved trade relations under President-elect Joe Biden gave a jolt to investor risk appetite.

All major US stock indexes touched all-time highs and crude prices jumped more than 10 per cent.

Pfizer Inc said its Covid-19 vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE, was more than 90pc effective in preventing infection, marking the first successful data from a large-scale clinical trial.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,092.42 points, or 3.86pc, to 29,415.82, the S&P 500 gained 99.43 points, or 2.83pc, to 3,608.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 139.21 points, or 1.17pc, to 12,034.44.

Pfizer’s announcement gave a jolt to European shares, sending them to an eight-month high, building on hopes of more stable trade policies under president-elect Biden.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 4.03pc and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 2.42pc.

Emerging market stocks rose 1.65pc. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 1.21pc higher, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.12pc.

Oil prices jumped nearly 10pc as the vaccine news and an Opec output deal fuelled optimism over rebounding demand. US crude rose 9.64pc to $40.72 per barrel and Brent was last at $42.79, up 8.47pc on the day.

Spot gold dropped 4.5pc to $1,863.51 an ounce.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2020