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S&P 500 Hits Another New All-Time High

Another day, another record high for the S&P 500. We keep going like this, we might start getting spoiled. The index’s totals weren’t super-noteworthy in the daily performance, +0.33%, but this April has seen multiple new highs four of the past six sessions for the cross-section index of the overall market’s top 500 companies.

The Nasdaq grew 1.05% on strength in the return to FAANG stocks like Apple AAPL, +2.4% for the day. The Down was down a tad, -0.2%, while the Russell 2000 met this, -0.22%.

The Johnson & Johnson JNJ news this morning, where the U.S. government is calling for a pause in vaccination administration from the only “one and done” Covid vaccine due to a half dozen blood clots cited among the 6.8 million single-shot doses administered. This is expected to create a gap in immunization goals, though Pfizer PFE has already said it will step up with 10% higher production of its vaccine by the end of May.

For its part, Moderna MRNA released new data today whereby its overall efficacy has reached an applaudable 90%, including 95% among severe cases. The Cambridge, MA-based company also has children 12-17 years of age enrolled in a new study, with kids 6 months to 11 years currently being populated for an even newer study. Not only because of the J&J news, but also because variants of the novel coronavirus have created brand news waves of the disease in places like South America and South Central Asia.

Speaking of, India has announced it will be fast-tracking all Covid vaccines, as its case load grew to 162K today, with the state of Maharashtra containing 25% of the country’s entire current caseload. India had been a net exporter of Covid vaccines, with its largest vaccine manufacturing capacity in the entire world; tens of millions of doses have been exported from the country. Now the country is in need of shots and remedies, two weeks after its popular Holi holiday. India currently uses the AstraZeneca AZN vaccine, but is looking for supply among all vaccine makers.

Wednesday brings us new Import Price data and a new edition of the Beige Book — put together by the Federal Reserve Board on the current economic conditions among 12 domestic districts reporting. So close on the heels of the last Fed minutes release, we may not see a lot of new language addressing our burgeoning economic blossom (and its economic fallout), but at least we will see the findings compartmentalized.

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