Investors are starting to get used to stock market performances, and Wednesday brought some more good news for market participants. Despite some calls for the markets to become frothy, profits came across the board. De Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^ DJI) was again moving the slowpoke upwards, but even managed to make a profit on the day. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^ SPX) and Nasdaq Composite scored again all the time.
Current stock market
|
Index |
Percentage change |
Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
+ 0.30% |
+83 |
|
S&P 500 |
+ 1.02% |
+35 |
|
Nasdaq Composite |
+ 1.73% |
+199 |
Data Source: Yahoo! Finances.
Earnings for various shares show the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on what consumers want and what companies do to meet that demand. Modern (NASDAQ: MRNA) gave investors some promising news about his coronavirus vaccine candidate, while it seems so Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is ready to cling to a large part of the new customer base it has attracted during the pandemic and the associated locks.
Image Source: Getty Images.
A fax with promise
Shares of Moderna climbed 6% on Wednesday. The company has been working hard on a candidate vaccine for COVID-19, and its recent results suggested to shareholders that their efforts could pay off.
Modern reveals data from a Phase 1 clinical trial of its candidate for vaccine mRNA-1273 at a webinar with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trial separated participants into three age groups: 18-55, 56-70, and 71 and older. The data showed that mRNA-1273 was safe in producing no significant adverse events on the participants, and antibody presence was at consistently high levels.
At this point, Moderna is in overdrive to try to get the vaccine approved. The company is one of the first to begin clinical trials with Phase 3 to combat COVID-19, after announcing its launch in late July. Based on recent events, it seems likely that the White House will support emergency use authorizations for vaccine candidates who show promise.
Investors are hopeful that mRNA-1273 will complete the test. It’s still early days, but what we’ve seen so far looks promising.
Watchers for life
Elsewhere, Netflix shares were up 11%, hitting highs. The streaming video specialist gained a large new audience during the pandemic, and now many are beginning to think that Netflix is hanging on to these customers, even as it ends.
With so many people sitting at home watching movies, Netflix has become extremely popular. The service added nearly 26 million subscribers in the first half of 2020. However, skeptics believe that as soon as people can get out and about again, they are just as likely to cancel the services they signed up for during the pandemic, including Netflix .
However, a survey by analyst firm Piper Sandler came to a different conclusion. Answers to a Questionnaire given to 1,000 Participants Netflix overwhelmingly chooses Netflix as the service most people would love to stay home after restrictions. Competitors also did reasonably well, but were still well behind.
Netflix can also take comfort in a separate survey that found that people would continue to watch even if the company increased subscription prices. That could give shareholders the next shot in the arm that they need to keep the FAANG shares higher.
