US markets declined yesterday, registering its biggest weekly fall since October, as investors gauged the ramifications of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine trial results.
 
So, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 621 points, or 2 per cent, to 29,983. The S&P 500 lost 73 points, or 1.9 per cent, to 3,714. And the Nasdaq Composite dropped 266 points, or 2 per cent, to 13,071. All three main indexes suffered their biggest weekly fall since the end of October, as the Dow and S&P lost 3.3 per cent, each and the Nasdaq declined 3.5 per cent. For the month, the Dow dipped 2 per cent, the S&P shed 1.1 per cent, but the Nasdaq gained 1.4 per cent. Both the S&P and Dow also closed below their 50-day moving average. 
 
Johnson & Johnson fell 3.6 per cent as one of the biggest weights on both the Dow and S&P500 after the drugmaker said its single-dose vaccine was 72 per cent effective in preventing COVID  in the US, with a lower rate of 66 per cent observed globally.
 
The results compare to the high bar set by two authorized vaccines from Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc, which were around 95 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic illness in key trials when given in two doses. Moderna shares climbed 8.5 per cent while Pfizer shares edged up 0.1 per cent.