Vaccine Stocks Rise as Chinese Scientists Discover a New Coronavirus

Group 1 - Stocks of COVID vaccine manufacturers, including Moderna, Pfizer, Novavax, and BioNTech, experienced an increase due to reports of a new bat coronavirus discovered in China [1][5] - The newly identified coronavirus, HKU5-Cov-2, has the potential to be transmitted to humans and belongs to the same family as SARS-CoV-2, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic [2] - HKU5-Cov-2 shares similarities with viruses causing MERS and exhibits symptoms such as fever, cough, and breathlessness, but has not yet been found in humans [3] Group 2 - The rise in stock prices for Moderna (5.3%), Pfizer (1.5%), Novavax (0.9%), and BioNTech (1.8%) reflects market anticipation of potential future demand for vaccines due to the new virus [5] - Despite the potential for HKU5-Cov-2 to infect humans, the likelihood of it causing a pandemic is considered low due to its lower efficiency in binding to human ACE2 compared to SARS-CoV-2 [6] - Current Zacks Rank indicates that Moderna, Novavax, and Pfizer hold a rank of 3 (Hold), while BioNTech has a rank of 2 (Buy) [7]