Wall Street Rebounds with Nasdaq Hitting New Record High

The main indices of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) finished higher on Monday, with the Nasdaq hitting a new all-time closing high and the S&P 500 nearing its record high. Meanwhile, Wall Street investors seemed more optimistic about efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided the first full approval for a vaccine to Pfizer-BioNTech.

Following the FDA approval, the Biden administration is reportedly pushing for more people to get immunized against COVID-19, asking more companies to require more of their employees to be vaccinated.

The news helped ease concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 virus Delta variant.

FDA now fully approves the vaccine for people aged 16 and older, and the emergency use for people aged 12 to 15.

In Wall Street, the benchmark indices managed to register gains, after declining last week with the release of the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes showing a tendency to cut asset purchases in 2021 or in the first quarter of 2022.

In addition, the energy sector saw large gains, supported by the rising crude oil prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 215.63 points, or 0.6%, to close at 35,335.71 points.

The S&P 500 added 37.86 points, or 0.8%, to finish at 4,479.53 points, after hitting an intraday record high earlier in the session near 4,490 points.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index surged by 227.99 points, or 1.6%, and closed at a record 14,942.65 points.

Last week, the release of the Federal Reserve July policy meeting minutes, which showed that a majority of FOMC members believe that it would be suitable to scale back the massive $120 billion a month asset purchases before the end of the year.

The move marked the actual declaration regarding the path for tapering and policy normalization, which will ultimately mean higher borrowing costs and interest rates, which had a mostly negative impact on the market.