US stocks will be in focus today, ahead of the start of the second-quarter earnings season.
Context: US equities closed higher on Friday as news of a potential covid-19 vaccine lifted hopes of an economic rebound. Amid restrictions, technology stocks continuing their rally.
Details: Gilead Sciences reported encouraging data from its coronavirus vaccine candidate, Remdesivir, which showed that the antiviral drug had improved the clinical recovery rate, while also reducing the risk of mortality by 62% in patients suffering from the infection.
Shares of Gilead Sciences rose 2% on the news on Friday. Tesla’s stock climbed more than 10%, even as analysts recommended investors to tread lightly after the rally so far this year.
Shares of Netflix jumped around 8% as the company gears up to report its second-quarter results on July 16. Amazon’s stock also surged to a new all-time high and closed its tenth week of gains.
The Dow Jones index added 369.21 points to close at 26,075.30 on Friday, with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs leading the gains. The S&P 500 rose 1% to 3,185.04.
The Nasdaq 100 surged to another record close on Friday, rising 0.6% to 10,617.44, driven by gains from Amazon and Netflix.
The Dow Jones index gained around 1% last week, while the tech-laden Nasdaq 100 index posted a weekly surge of 4%.
What to watch: Investors look forward to the start of the quarterly earnings season, with some major financial companies scheduled to report results this week. PepsiCo will be reporting its earnings today. The economic calendar is light today, with US scheduled to report consumer inflation expectations and government budget data.
Markets will continue to focus on the daily coronavirus numbers, with the total case-count in the US surging past 3.3 million with more than 135,000 deaths.
Other Markets: European indices were trading higher at 8:30am GMT, with the FTSE 100, French 40 and Dax 30 index up by 1.1%, 0.9% and 1.2%, respectively.