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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened higher on Monday, supported by hopes that the Federal Reserve may put off tapering its asset purchases until at least December amid signs that the latest global wave of Covid-19 is slowing the global economic recovery.
By 9:35 AM ET (1335 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 194 points, or 0.6%, at 35,314 points, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were both up 0.5%.
Sentiment was also lifted by China’s announcement on Monday that it had not registered any Covid-19 cases through community spread for the first time since July. The heavy-handed reaction to localized outbreaks of the coronavirus in China has hit global oil demand and led to a fresh round of disruptions of global supply chains, notably through capacity restrictions at the country’s ports.
The supply squeeze has been sharpest in sectors such as semiconductors, and these again stood out in early trading, with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock rising 2.6% and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) stock rising 2.3%.
Elsewhere, Uber (NYSE:UBER) stock quickly shook off the disappointment of a Friday court ruling in California that struck down its exemption from a new law that stands to raise its operating costs substantially. The court ruled the Proposition 22 – which allows the likes of Uber, Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) and Doordash to pay their drivers as contractors rather than employees – is unconstitutional. Uber said it plans to appeal.
After losing as much as 5% in premarket, Uber stock was up 0.1% while Lyft stock was down only 0.4%. DoorDash stock was down 1.8%.
Vaccine stocks were in demand again, with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) stock rising 2.7% and BioNTech stock rising 9.5% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave their Covid-19 drug full approval for use by people over 16, upgrading the Emergency Use Authorization that had previously been in place. The vaccine’s new status affords greater legal protection to companies who impose vaccine mandates on their staff ( Chevron (NYSE:CVX) became the latest to do so on Monday), and is perceived as helping to boost confidence in the drug more broadly.
Pfizer stock was also supported by news that it will buy out the rest of smaller biotech company Trillium Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TRIL) at a valuation of $2.6 billion, news that almost tripled Trillium’s stock price.
