Global stocks surge to new record on vaccine, Biden optimism

Global equities jumped to a record high amid optimism about the outlook for risk assets during a Joe Biden presidency and the promising results for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.

The MSCI All-Country World Index rose as much as 2.9% to 609.87 on Monday, a new intraday high. Monday’s advance brought a gain in market value for the index of as much as about $1.8 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

After surging nearly 8% last week in the biggest rally since April, global stocks on Monday extended their gains after Biden was declared the winner of the US election over the weekend. The moves accelerated after results from a preliminary study showed a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE protects most people from Covid-19.

Biden in his victory speech promised swift action against the pandemic and an orderly transfer of power, though President Donald Trump is weighing legal challenges and has so far refused to concede.

“Stock markets have responded to the US elections with relief,” Ulrich Urbahn, head of multi-asset strategy at Berenberg Bank, said by email. “One reason for this, apart from the reduction of hedges, may have been that the election result (president Biden, divided Congress) essentially secures the status quo but with less political tension.”

Urbahn said Berenberg remains constructive on equities and optimistic on European small caps, Asian emerging-market equities and bonds amid bets that the Covid-19 vaccine approval is approaching and that the global economy will recover next year.

© 2020 Bloomberg