Staff at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration said in a report today that Moderna’s (MRNA) coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective for preventing Covid-19 in people ages 18 and older.
That came ahead of a Thursday meeting of an FDA advisory panel that will vote on whether to recommend full Emergency Use Authorization. The FDA doesn’t have to follow the advice of this panel of independent vaccine experts but it did last week when it approved a coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) after a 17-4 vote in the advisory committee.
The staff report found the vaccine was similarly effective across racial and ethnic groups and those with underlying medical conditions. It was 86.4% effective in people age 65 and over, and 95.6% effective in those 18 to 65. The most common systemic side effects were fatigue and headache.
The stock market today decided the good news on the Modern vaccine and vague news (that investors chose to interpret at good news) on progress in talks about a new round of coronavirus stimulus/relief was enough to justify a rally that ended a run of don days.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 1.29%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 1.13% at the finish. The NASDAQ Composite gained 1.25% and the NASDAQ 100 added 1.07%. The Russell 2000 climbed to end the day up 2.40%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) closed higher by 1.08%.
