Wall Street Close: It is vaccine hopes vs lockdown pessimism, stocks sink

US stocks sank on Wednesday and took the three major indexes back into the red.

There was a positive start to the day, however, with Pfizer Inc PFE and its German partner BioNTech BNTX revealing a 95% success rate at the conclusion of their COVID-19 vaccine trial.

This came on the heels of Moderna Inc MRNA announcement of a similar rate of success on Monday with its own vaccine candidate.

''Results from the Oxford-AstraZeneca trial is expected soon so the good news flow may still have legs yet,'' analysts at ANZ bank noted, but said hurdles, such as ''further safety testing, approval, the scale of manufacture, and distribution still need to be cleared.''

''Nonetheless, the world and its policymakers are watching and waiting with bated breath.''

However, there was a sense of concern as the news of the US death rate breaking 250,000 circulated and as global new infections also soared to record levels.

Investors are concerned that increased restrictions will have to be implemented as the US economy struggles to recover from the recession. 

Consequently, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 345.91 points, or 1.16%, to 29,437.44, the S&P 500 fell 41.81 points, or 1.16%, to 3,567.72 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 97.74 points, or 0.82%, to 11,801.60. 

Meanwhile, the third-quarter reporting season has reached the last leg.

468 of the companies in the S&P 500 have already reported. Of those, 84.4% have surprised consensus to the upside, according to Refinitiv.

US data a bright spot

US October housing starts rose 4.9% MoM to 1530k saar.

''They are now almost back at pre-COVID levels (1617k) marking a V-shaped recovery. Demand for single-family homes remains very strong,'' analysts at ANZ explained.