S&P 500 Futures, Asian stocks flash green on Novavax vaccine, stimulus hopes

Adding to the upbeat market mood in Asia this Friday, Reuters reported that Novavax Inc on Thursday started a clinical late-stage trial of coronavirus vaccine in the UK.  

The experimental vaccine is developed in partnership with the government’s Vaccines Taskforce. The study, which could take about four-six weeks, comes after the vaccine candidate produced high levels of antibodies against the novel coronavirus in the early trial.  

Novavax said it could produce up to 2 billion annualized doses, once all capacity is brought online by mid-2021.

Market reaction

The Asian equities are mostly higher, led by a 1.30% rally in the Australian benchmark, the ASX200 index. The Nikkei 22 index advances 0.60% to 23,225 levels.

The Asian markets cheer the positive close on Wall Street, as investors remain expectant of a fiscal stimulus deal likely to be agreed by the US policymakers.

The S&P 500 futures jump 0.53% to 3,255, at the press time.