Stocks and index ETFs surged to fresh all-time highs, building on a burst of energy from a week last week, as developments on coronavirus treatments invigorated investors.
Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average has yet to achieve fresh all-time highs, the benchmark popped 245 points, or 0.96% Monday. The S&P 500 climbed 0.72% and to notch a new all-time high, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.53% higher to a fresh high as well, before falling back considerably.
The major stock index ETFs are trading higher along with their underlying benchmarks Monday. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA), SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) are all making solid moves into green territory early Monday.
There has been considerable optimism among investors in the battle against the coronavirus, as Monday’s moves result amid the number of new coronavirus cases continuing to decline in the U.S. Since surging by over 64,000 cases, the tally of new daily infections in the U.S. has not exceeded 49,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. On Sunday, that number was even lower as there were less than 37,000 new confirmed cases, the data showed.
On Sunday, the FDA put out an emergency use authorization of convalescent plasma for hospitalized coronavirus patients, a treatment that uses blood plasma donated by people who’ve recovered from the virus, which President Trump lauded in a news conference Sunday, claiming that the plasma treatment slashes the mortality rate by 35%.
“I think something interesting may evolve in the weeks and months ahead,” said Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, in a note. “I think it is entirely possible that USA COVID-19 cases crash to sub-10,000 in September.”
“The US is soon becoming one of the safest places in the World. And if this is true, capital will also want to seek the US” which means “stocks rise further,” Lee said.
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