Another Monday, another vaccine headline
This is the third Monday in a row that stock markets have been boosted by vaccine news. Today it's AstraZeneca who said its vaccine efficacy ranged from 62% to 90% depending on the dosage given, with an average of 70%.
Their vaccine is a more-traditional formula, unlike the MRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
The problem at the moment is two-fold:
1) There was a sell-the-news reaction in each of the last two pops and the market isn't waiting around long this time. S&P 500 futures have pared gains to 15 points
2) An analyst at investment bank SVB Leerink named Geoff Porges is attacking the vaccine news, saying AstraZeneca embellished the vaccine data and raised questions about safety disclosures. He said it will never be licenced in the US.
Shares of AstraZeneca are down 2%. Bad news on that virus would be a negative for global growth because it's only expected to cost $3-$5 per dose, around one-tenth the price of gene-based technology used by Moderna and Pfizer.
