On Monday, after its reports for the last days of 2020, the New York Stock Exchange began 2021 in a difficult way. In spite of the vaccine race, the coronavirus outbreak appears to escalate in the USA and Europe. In Europe, England reported a complete refinancing period of 6 weeks on Monday. In addition, investors are looking to Georgia, where two Senate elections are being held on Tuesday, which will determine the political picture of the U.S. Senate. For both seats, a Democratic win will bring the upper house into the Democratic camp, a situation that is seen as unwelcomed for stocks.
However, at the close, the indices decreased their losses, which in the day had been close to 2 percent. The industrial average of the Dow Jones gave up -1.25 percent to 30,223 points, while the large S&P 500 index dropped 1.48 percent to 3,700 points, and the technology-rich and biotech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.47 percent to 12,698 points.
Last Thursday, December 31, the indices finished 2020 on a strong note, with the DJIA and the S&P 500 breaking new highs, and the Nasdaq ending at just 0.1 percent of its peak levels. In the face of the coronavirus crisis, the three US indexes rose in 2020, by 7.3 percent for the Dow Jones, by 16.3 percent for the S&P 500 and by 43.6 percent for the Nasdaq 500, amid a dip of more than 30 percent in February-March (the best year of the Nasdaq in 11 years, after 2009).
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) fell stable at $36.81 while its German partner BioNTech SE (BNTX) grew to $85.73, up +5.16 percent. According to the owners of the German biotech, cited by the German weekly Der Spiegel, Pfizer and BioNTech are doing their best to improve development of their vaccine against the latest coronavirus, but supply disruptions are likely to occur before other vaccines are available in the European Union.
