Did Pfizer Find a Cure?

Tale of the Tape

Good evening, y’all. We start the week with a bang.

Early this morning, Pfizer shared updates on its COVID vaccine trials. Stocks soared following the news. See more below.

The S&P 500 was up as much as 3.9% before closing up 1%. The Nasdaq was negative. The small caps surged. The Russell 2000 ripped 3.7%. $RUT finished above 1700 for the first time since September 2018.

Also, the Russell 1000 Value index outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by the most since 2008. Wowza. h/t Katherine Greifeld.

Energy was the strongest sector. $XLE gained 14% and had its best day since March 24, 2020. Financials jumped 8%. Communication services, technology, consumer discretionary, and consumer staples were all negative.

Peloton tumbled -20%. Planet Fitness pumped +16%. The travel stocks travelled higher.

Maybe this means the economy is getting ready to reopen? Who knows. Place your bets…

Here are the closing prints:

S&P 500	3,550	+1.17%
Nasdaq	11,713	-1.53%
Russell 2000	1,705	+3.70%
Dow Jones	29,157	+2.95%

Earnings Round-Up

McDonald’s earnings came in better than expected as the company saw U.S. same-store Q3 sales turn positive. The fast food giant also unveiled that it will be testing a new plant-based burger called The McPlant.

Here are the results:

EPS: $2.22 vs $1.90 est.
Revenue: $5.42B vs $5.4B est.

McDonald’s CFO Kevin Ozan said:

The resilience of the McDonald’s system was on display during the third quarter as the competitive strength of our business and the 3 D’s – Digital, Delivery and Drive Thru – led to significant global comparable sales recovery. Our franchisees and restaurant teams around the world remain focused on running great restaurants and continuing to provide a safe environment for customers to enjoy our great tasting food.

$MCD fell 1.54%.

Beyond Meat shares were halted twice after the announcement that McDonald’s is creating a plant-based line called McPlant. The company missed on top and bottom lines.

Here are the results:

EPS: ($0.28) vs $0.05 est.
Revenue: $94.4M vs $132.8M est.

Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said:

Our financial results reflect a quarter where for the first time since the pandemic began, we experienced the full brunt and unpredictability of COVID-19 on our net revenues and accordingly, throughout our P&L. Unlike the second quarter where record retail buying and freezer loading by consumers offset the deterioration of our foodservice business as COVID-19 stay-at-home and related measures set in, the long tail of retail stockpiling by consumers, coupled with continued challenges across the majority of our foodservice customers, led to Q3 results that were lower than we expected.

$BYND was down 26% after-hours…

Plug Power reported Q3 earnings before the open today. The EV company missed on earnings but beat on revenue.

Here are the numbers:

EPS: ($0.11) vs ($0.06) est.
Revenue: $107M vs $105M est.

$PLUG closed up 7.69%.

Did Pfizer Find a Cure? 🦠

Pfizer and BioNTech announced its COVID vaccine candidate is over 90% effective.

Pzifer is seeking an emergency distribution license ASAP. Vaccine trials will still continue through December, though.

The pharmaceutical company has already begun manufacturing the vaccine and expects to provide 1.3B doses globally in 2021.

Here’s Reuters with more.

Notable physician and investor Michael Burry shared this:

Pfizer’s COVID vaccine is 90% effective, perhaps. Let’s put that in perspective. Not only would it achieve “herd immunity” as defined by the pessimists, but it is far better than our annual flu vaccine. I’d take it in a second.

$PFE popped 7.78%. $BNTX blasted 1414%.

Here’s the official press release.

Supreme® Joins VF Corp

VF Corporation will acquire Supreme® for $2.1B in CASH.

$VCF, owner of Vans and The North Face, popped 11% the news.

But what will this mean for streetwear fashionistas?

Supreme® founder James Jebbia said:

This partnership will maintain our unique culture and independence, while allowing us to grow on the same path we’ve been on since 1994.

Supreme® and The North Face have collaborated in the past. Now that the two are under the same roof, we expect they’ll continue to disrupt outdoor fashion. Check out the Fall 2020 collection here.

And here’s Bloomberg with more.

Travel Stocks Took Off

Following the vaccine news, travel and tourism stocks soared.

The cruise lines sailed to their highest levels in months:

$NCLH +26.75%
$CCL +39.29%
$RCL +28.79%

And the airlines took flight:

$AAL +15.18%
$UAL +19.15%
$LUV +9.70%
$DAL +17.03%
$JBLU +21.70%

The airline ETF $JETS jumped to close at its highest level since June 8, 2020. Here’s the daily chart: