Dow Turns Positive as Value Stocks Get Vaccine Boost

(C) Reuters

By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The Dow turned positive Tuesday, as the prospect of a vaccine roll out in the U.S. as early as this week eased concerns about the economic threat amid fresh lockdown measures across states to curb the rise in infections.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.38%, or 115 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.31%, while the Nasdaq Composite 0.52%.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that data from the clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine met its safety standards, stoking hopes the drug could be approved for Emergency Use Authorization in the coming days.

Emergency Use Authorization in the U.S. would follow a similar move in the UK, which got its vaccination program underway earlier Tuesday.

The vaccine news eased investor worries about the economic impact from fresh lockdown measures across states to curb the spread of infections and injected a shot of optimism across value stocks, with energy stocks leading the advance.

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), and Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) were among the biggest gainers in energy, with the latter up more than 4% as investors bet on a vaccine-fueled uptick in demand.

Industrials were not far behind, up nearly 1%, underpinned by a 8% surge in Equifax (NYSE:EFX) as the consumer credit reporting company received an upgrade from Barclays (LON:BARC) to overweight from underweight.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) fell 0.5% after the aircraft maker said orders for its beleaguered 737 Max, which was involved in two fatal crashes, declined by 63 last month, taking the total cancellations for the year through November to 1,068.

Ahead of key quarterly reports from Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) and Costco (NASDAQ:COST) later this week, investors digested mixed earnings from AutoZone and Stich Fix.

AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) reported earnings of $18.61 a share that topped expectations, but revenue of $3.15 billion fell short of estimates, sending its shares down 6%.

Stich Fix, meanwhile, surged 40% after reporting a surprise fiscal first-quarter profit on higher revenue, prompting a slew of analysts on Wall Street to upgrade their estimates on the stock.

RBC lifted its price target on Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) to $64 from $50 amid expectations for net additions and revenue growth acceleration, and Ebitda margin expansion in fiscal 2021.