Stay-at-home stocks from Amazon to Zoom hammered on positive vaccine news
Public companies that saw their stock market values surge amid pandemic-inspired, stay-at-home orders fell hard Monday after promising results from Pfizer and BioNTech on a coronavirus vaccine were released.
High flyers from Amazon and Netflix to Peloton Interactive and Zoom Video Communications lost from 5% to 25% of their market value on a day that saw the rest of the U.S. stock market soar on the Pfizer vaccine news. The Dow jumped 835 points, or 3%, 29,157.97, after reaching a record high of 29,836, while the S&P 500-stock index rose 1.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.5%.
Stocks overall were in rally mode on the U.S. election result when Pfizer said that data show its vaccine shot may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, indicating the drug manufacturer is on track this month to file an emergency-use application with U.S. regulators.
While Wall Street cheered the preliminary findings, they also weighed heavily on shares of some of COVID-19's biggest stock winners on investor thinking that an eventual vaccine would likely mean people will be spending less time exercising from home or engaged in video chats with their homebound work colleagues.
"We're making the assumption that everything is going to be back to normal tomorrow, and taking back some of the reward that was meted out to the stay-at-home names," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities, told CBS MoneyWatch.
But investors should be wary of making emotional decisions based on one piece of news, Hogan added. "My guess is Netflix will remain an important part of our lives — I don't think Amazon is going out of business because we have a vaccine."
Zoom finished 17% lower after plummeting as much as 20% — its biggest drop on record — and Peloton Interactive cratered 25%, also a record slump, before the stationary cycling company ended the session with a loss of 20%. Amazon tumbled as much as 6% and Netflix declined 8.6% as investors discarded shares that surged amid lockdowns.
Meal-kit maker HelloFresh plunged 15% and shares of disinfectant maker Clorox fell nearly 11%.
Others that cater to online shoppers like Etsy and Wayfair also fell, Etsy by 17% and Wayfair by nearly 22%, while Overstock.com declined 20% and Pinterest dropped nearly 11%.
The moves marked a rotation out of shares that had gained as the ongoing pandemic ravaged the country. Zoom, for instance, was up 635% for the year before Monday's opening bell, while Amazon had been ahead 79% and Netflix 59%.
