Asian markets are mostly higher Tuesday, one day after U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced a breakthrough in the effort to develop an efficient and effective COVID-19 vaccine.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index ended 0.2% higher. The S&P/ASX index in Australia rose 0.6%, and South Korea’s KOSPI gained 0.2%.
Meanwhile, Shanghai’s Composite index fell 0.4%, while the TSEC index in Taiwan dropped 0.3%. In late afternoon trading, the Hang Seng index is up 0.8%, and Mumbai’s Sensex is 1.2% higher.
In commodities trading, gold is selling at $1,883.90, up 1.5%. U.S. crude oil is selling at $40.22 per barrel, down 0.1%, while Brent crude oil is up 0.2%, selling at $42.49.
Pfizer said early Monday morning that its experimental vaccine, developed jointly with Germany’s BioNTech, proved to be more than 90% effective in preventing the virus in participants without evidence of prior infection.
In futures trading, the Dow and the S&P 500 are trending higher, while the Nasdaq is trending lower.
