S&P 500, Dow reach historic highs on renewed vaccine hopes

Wall Street was seen upbeat on Monday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average hitting milestone peaks. This followed after encouraging vaccine-related news fuelled investors’ optimism. However, surging infections and newly implemented restrictions capped the possibility of staging a brisk recovery from the coronavirus downturn.

All of Wall Street’s major indexes gained, with the blue-chip Dow reclaiming its February record to hit a new closing high. The Russell 2000 also hit an all-time closing peak, with value, cyclical, and small-cap shares outperforming the broader market.

Moderna Inc came to be the second drugmaker to announce encouraging results from its series of vaccine trials. The drugmaker said that its experimental coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective based on its interim late-state data.