(Bloomberg) -- Moderna Inc. is the top performer on the S&P 500 Monday, jumping as much as 21%, amid renewed Covid-19 fears as parts of China went into lockdown.
German biotechnology company BioNTech SE surged as much as 18% for its biggest one-day gain since November, while partner Pfizer Inc. climbed as much as 5.3%. Vaccine makers had been battered this year as investors shifted away from risky growth stocks, with the group trading well below records reached in 2021.
While the surge in China is being attributed to the omicron variant and the country is unlikely to order shots from Moderna, “Covid newsflow drives investor fears that the pandemic would take longer to resolve and more doses will be needed around the world,” said Jefferies analyst Michael Yee.
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