On Tuesday, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said that vaccine optimism has Wall Street believing the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. could be over in the second quarter of 2021 as the Trump administration’s chief of vaccine development, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, has said he believes the entire U.S. population could be inoculated by June.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Tuesday that Wall Street is gaining confidence in the potential rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in the U.S., suggesting investors believe the serious challenges caused by the pandemic could soon be behind the country.
“The market is very prescient. I think the market has been going up because we’re starting to realize this may be — for all intents and purposes in America, not in the rest of the world — over in the second quarter of 2021,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.”
The stock market had a very strong November, despite uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s challenges to the election and a worsening Covid-19 outbreak, as a slew of positive vaccine developments were announced. Stocks continued to show strength in the initial days of December trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing Friday’s session at a record high.
The head of the Trump administration’s vaccine development effort, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, has said he believes the entire U.S. population could be inoculated by June. He predicted the country “should have this pandemic under control in the second half of 2021” if enough Americans receive the vaccine.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve often stated, we’re very hopeful that the various COVID-19 vaccines will arrive on a widespread basis even more quickly than many thought possible earlier this year as the U.S.’s Operation Warp Speed accelerates the development and, importantly, the manufacture of millions of doses by funding steps to proceed simultaneously versus the usual, significantly slower sequential process.
Obviously, the quicker we can get to a post-COVID-19 U.S. and, eventually, world, the better it is for everyone, including Apple, which has done very well during the pandemic, but stands to do even better once the company’s 500+ retail stores, more than half of which are in the U.S, are once again open for business as usual!