Morgans AM: Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets rebounded as President Joe Biden told Americans the fight against the omicron variant of coronavirus won’t involve “shutdowns or lockdowns.” - Dow up +237-points or +0.68% a day after recording its worst daily decline (-905-points or -2.53%) since 28 October, 2020. Walmart Inc lost -1.57% after announcing that it will begin the search for a successor to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brett Biggs, who has been with the company for 22 years and became CFO on 31 December, 2015. However, Merck & Co (down -5.39%) was the largest drag on the Dow after Citi downgraded the stock to neutral from buy, saying in a research note that development struggles for the company’s HIV drug were taking a bite out of Merck’s long-term potential. The broader S&P500 gained +1.32%, with Information Technology (up +2.64%) leading all eleven primary sectors higher. Consumer Discretionary (up +1.63%), Utilities (+1.57%), Real Estate (+1.33%) and Communication Services (+1.12%) all rose over >1%. Moderna Inc continued to soar, climbing a further +11.80% overnight. The biotechnology company’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said Sunday (28 November) that Moderna could roll out a reformulated vaccine against omicron early next year. However, Pfizer Inc fell -2.96%. The technology-centric Nasdaq rose +1.88%, with Apple Inc rising +2.19% and Amazon.com Inc +1.63% and Microsoft Corp rose +2.11% ahead of its Annual General Meeting (AGM). Twitter Inc fell -2.74%, unwinding an earlier rally of over >11% following news that Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey was stepping down from the role, effective immediately. Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief technology officer, will take over the helm. Mr Dorsey will remain a member of the board until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders, the company said. However, the small capitalisation Russell 2000 slipped 0.18%.