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Markets Bounce Back; Visa (V) Beats, Mondelez (MDLZ) Meets

Markets bounced back from its worrisome sell-off Wednesday as the affront to hedge fund short-sellers abated from retail investors in stocks like AMC AMC and GameStop GME. The Dow, which reached +650 points at its intra-day high, closed up 300 points, or around 1%. The S&P 500 followed suit, finishing up +37 points. The Nasdaq was up 0.5% while the small-cap Russell 2000 closed down 0.10%. It was the first close in the green for the Dow in the last five sessions; the last three for the Nasdaq and S&P.

Novavax NVAX, the latest pharma company issuing phase-3 trial data for its Covid-19 vaccine, saw an 89% efficacy rate in its U.K. trial. Importantly, this included about half of its subjects infected with the new U.K. variant of the coronavirus, B117, of which the efficacy rate was 85.6%. The original strain was nullified in 95.6% of cases, comparable to those vaccines already on the market from Pfizer PFE/BioNTech BNTX and Moderna MRNA.

The Gaithersburg, MD-based Novavax also conducted a trial in South Africa, the source of a more-resistant strain of the coronavirus. Here, results were predictably less terrific: 60% efficacy on those patients infected with the B1351 variant of Covid-19. This figure gets even weaker when considering those patients who were also HIV-positive: 49%. Still, this represents progress on perhaps the most problematic front of the pandemic.

Visa V outperformed estimates on both top and bottom lines this afternoon after the closing bell: $1.42 per share beat the Zacks consensus of $1.27, closer to the year-ago figure of $1.46 per share. Revenues in the quarter came to $5.69 billion, above the $5.51 billion anticipated but still down 6% year over year. The credit card major also announced an $8 billion share buyback program, but offered no future guidance. The company has not ever — not once — missed earnings estimates in its entire publicly traded history.

Snack leader Mondelez MDLZ met earnings estimates of 67 cents per share in its Q4 report this afternoon, up nearly 10% from the year-ago quarter. Sales were better than expected to $7.3 billion, on 14% growth in its North American markets. Clearly, the ongoing pandemic is helping stay-at-home snacking on products like Oreos and Nabisco crackers remain in high demand. Shares are up 0.4% on the news, but still down 1% year to date.

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Pfizer Inc. (PFE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
GameStop Corp. (GME) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Visa Inc. (V) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Mondelez International, Inc. (MDLZ) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (AMC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR (BNTX) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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