Covid vaccine, Novavax, delay rumours, weighing on sentiment

There is a rumour that the Novavax vaccine is delayed, which has seen the stock drop some 6% in recent trade. 

Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX), is a late-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, including NVX-CoV2373, the Company’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The news of the delay is problematic for risk-sensitive asset classes as financial markets bare the latest alarming surges of the course throughout Europe and the US.

Both European and US stocks have had a terrible start to the week on the back of the second wave headlines of the weekend and the latest update from data compiled by Johns Hopkins University:

Confirmed global cases of COVID-19 has soared to 43 million according to the latest The death toll has also climbed to 1.15 million.

The latest surge has forced many European countries to tighten restrictions on activity.

The US infections have also skyrocketed past the prior peak of July, forcing El Paso in Texas to ask citizens to stay at home for the next two weeks.

The negative sentiment has fed through to Wall Street setting the Dow for its worst day in more than seven weeks.

At the time of writing, the major indexes are down Dow 2.29%, S&P 1.89%, Nasdaq 1.58%, albeit off their worst levels of the day, so far.