Stocks Skyrocket Amid Potential COVID-19 Vaccine News

U.S. stocks have skyrocketed as pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that its potential coronavirus vaccine was 90% effective Monday.

The Dow jumped as much as 1,610 points around 9:30 a.m. before leveling off at around a 1,250 point gain (4.4%) at the time of publishing, according to CNN Business. The S&P 500 saw an uptick of 3.3% and the Nasdaq Composite increased by 1.3% amid the news, CNN reported.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 are on track for displaying one of the largest daily gains in the country’s history, according to CNN.

“I am happy to share with you that Pfizer and our collaborator, BioNTech, announced positive efficacy results from our Phase 3, late-stage study of our potential COVID-19 vaccine,” Pfizer wrote in a statement. “The vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis.”

The medical company also added that its mRNA-based vaccination has brought the company “one step closer” to a “much needed breakthrough” to ultimately end the virus.

“The results demonstrate that our mRNA-based vaccine can help prevent COVID-19 in the majority of people who receive it,” Pfizer wrote. “This means we are one step closer to potentially providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global pandemic.”

“This is a first but critical step in our work to deliver a safe and effective vaccine.”