NEW YORK, Dec 2 — Wall Street stocks pulled back from records early today following lacklustre US jobs data, despite the first approval of a Covid-19 vaccine by a western country.
Britain cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine beginning next week, a major step in efforts to move the global economy beyond the coronavirus pandemic.
Optimism about vaccines has propelled US stocks to records in recent sessions, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 per cent at 29,741.57.
About 20 minutes into trading, the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 per cent to 3,654.16, while the tech-rich Nadaq composite Index tumbled 0.9 per cent to 12,243.58.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had ended at records yesterday.
Payroll services firm ADP said private jobs rose 307,000 last month, seasonally adjusted, with firms of all sizes showing increases, though that gain lagged the expected level and was slower than October’s upwardly revised gain of 404,000.
The figures come head of Friday’s closely-watched Labour Department jobs report.
Among individual companies, Slack Technologies fell 3.2 per cent after it agreed to be acquired by Salesforce for US$27.7 billion (RM112.9 billion), giving the business software giant a broader array of tools as the pandemic fuels a remote work trend.
Salesforce dropped 9.2 per cent.
Pfizer shares jumped 3.3 per cent following the British announcement about its coronavirus vaccine. Chief Executive Albert Bourla called the announcement a “historic moment in the fight against Covid-19.” — AFP
