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Airline stocks blast off after upbeat news on potential COVID-19 vaccine
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Airline stocks blast off after upbeat news on potential COVID-19 vaccine ”
American Airlines stock leads the sector with a 25% premarket rally
Shares of airline companies blasted off Monday, after upbeat news on a potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE gave investors hope for a quick recovery in business and leisure travel.
The U.S. Global Jets exchange-traded fund
JETS, -1.38%
shot up 18.9% in premarket trading, putting it on track to open at the highest price seen during regular-session hours in five months.
The air carrier rally comes amid a big surge in the broader stock market, with futures
YM00, +5.29%
for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, -0.23%
soaring nearly 1,500 points, or 5.3%. See Market Snapshot.
American Airlines Group Inc.’s
AAL, -1.20%
stock paced the sectors gainers, rocketing 23.8% toward a three-month high on volume of about 11 million shares.
Among other more-active air carrier shares, United Airlines Holdings Inc.
UAL, -1.89%
ran up 17.1%, Delta Air Lines Inc.
DAL, -1.75%
powered up 18.1%, Spirit Airlines Inc.
SAVE, -1.44%
surged 21.1%, Southwest Airlines Co.
LUV, -2.53%
hiked up 15.7% and JetBlue Airways Corp.
JBLU, -1.51%
rallied 18.0%.
Earlier, Pfizer
PFE, +0.02%
and BioNTech
BNTX,
said their COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b2 achieved “success” in the first interim analysis from a Phase 3 study, as it was found 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in trial participants without previous evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Airlines had been among the hardest hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although travel has steadily increased since April, a recent surge in new cases has led to new lockdowns in Europe and raised fears of similar moves in the U.S.
The Jets ETF has gained 6.6% over the past three months through Friday, but was still down 43.7% year to date. In comparison, the S&P 500 index
SPX, -0.02%
has tacked on 4.7% the past three months and has advanced 8.6% this year.