(Bloomberg) -- Investors flocked back to stay-at-home companies while selling travel shares after U.S. regulators recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 shot amid concerns about blood clots.
J&J slumped in premarket trading, while BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. rallied alongside Moderna Inc. as traders favored competing firms with vaccines that haven’t been tied to similar safety risks. At the same time, cruise operators such as Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. sank. American Airlines Group Inc. also slid on a wider-than-estimated loss for the first quarter -- a stark reminder of the pain that airlines have experienced during the coronavirus pandemic.
Some companies that cater to consumers staying at home gained traction, with Zoom Video Communications Inc. climbing alongside exercise-at-home firm Peloton Interactive Inc. Futures in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed S&P 500 contracts.
The gains for lockdown winners and competing vaccine companies came at the expense of the stocks that investors had been hopeful would benefit from a swift reopening of the economy amid a drop in coronavirus cases.
The recommended pause by the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration may further complicate efforts to vaccinate the world, just weeks after a vaccine relying on a similar approach and developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford raised similar concerns in Europe. It also has the potential to slow the U.S. vaccination campaign, where officials are relying on a pledged 100 million doses of J&J’s vaccine to help cover all adults by the end of May.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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