Topline
Stocks finished higher on Monday as tech shares continued to rebound and optimism around a coronavirus vaccine sparked a broader market rally.
The market clawed back losses from last week.
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Key Facts
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2%, over 300 points, on Monday, while the S&P 500 rose 1.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1.9%.
Technology stocks continued to rebound from last week’s losses, with market leader Apple rising over 3% and Microsoft over 1%.
The tech sector also rallied on news of Nvidia buying chipmaker Arm Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion, causing a broad rally in Semiconductor and chip stocks.
Shares of Oracle rallied over 4% after ByteDance rejected Microsoft’s bid to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations and instead chose Oracle to take a significant stake in its U.S. business.
Market sentiment was also lifted by rising optimism for a coronavirus vaccine: AstraZeneca, which has partnered with the University of Oxford, resumed phase three trials for its vaccine candidate in the U.K. following a brief halt due to safety concerns.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, meanwhile, said on Sunday that a coronavirus vaccine could be widely distributed in the United States before the end of 2020.
Tangent
Shares of daily fantasy and sports-betting company DraftKings surged by over 16% on Monday after the company announced a new partnership with sports entertainment giant ESPN. Despite going public last April—at a time when there were few live sports to bet on, DraftKings’ stock has now risen more than 160%.
Key Background
Stocks are attempting to recover from last week’s losses. The S&P 500 fell 2.5% last week, its worst one-week drop since late June, while the Nasdaq fell more than 4% for its worst week since March. Amid the wider tech sell-off last week, the Nasdaq briefly entered correction territory on Tuesday, after falling 10% in just three days of trading.
Further Reading
These Stocks Will Outperform The Market If A Coronavirus Vaccine Is Approved, According To Experts (Forbes)
DraftKings Stock Jumps Over 16% After Announcing ESPN Deal (Forbes)
Stock Market Rally: Dow Jumps Over 400 Points As Tech Shares Rebound (Forbes)
