Stock market live Monday: Dow soars 800 points, new intraday records, stay-at-home stocks fade

• Dow closed up 2.95% after hitting a new intraday all-time high of 29,933.83 for the first time since Feb. 12
• Dow had its best day since June 5
• Dow is up 2.17% year to date
• S&P 500 rose 1.17% after hitting a new intraday all-time high of 3,645.99 for the first time since Sep. 2
• S&P 500 is up 9.90% year to date
• Seven out of 11 sectors were positive Monday led by energy up 14.2% for its best day since May 24
• Nasdaq closed down 1.53% for its first negative day in six after hitting a new intraday all-time high of 12,108.07 for the first time since Sep. 2
• Nasdaq is up 30.55% year to date.

— Gina Francolla, Jesse Pound

The Dow and S&P 500 held on to much of their gains on Monday afternoon but did close off of session highs. The Dow rose 835 points, or nearly 3%, while the S&P 500 rose 1.2%. Both hit intraday record highs earlier in the session before slipping.

The Nasdaq Composite, which has outperformed the other major indexes this year, fell 1.5%.

— Jesse Pound

Berkshire Hathaway's Class A stock rallied more than 6% after the company reported a record buyback for the previous quarter on Saturday.

Warren Buffett's conglomerate bought back $9 billion worth of its own stock during the third quarter.

Buffett's repurchase spree comes amid a tough time for its operations as the global economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus, directly impacting the company's wholly owned businesses which include railroads, utilities and insurance.

—Fred Imbert

The Dow and S&P 500 were on pace to post record closing highs as the positive vaccine trial from BioNTech and Pfizer lifted market sentiment. The Dow traded more than 1,200 points higher, or 4.5%. The S&P 500 gained 2.8%. The Nasdaq Composite lagged, rising just 0.2% as traders sold names that benefited from people staying at home during the pandemic.

—Fred Imbert

Stanley Druckenmiller, CEO of the Duquesne Family Office, said he wouldn't bet against the U.S. stock market right now given the massive rotation out of growth and into value names that's currently taking place.

"You've had a bunch of equities benefitting greatly from work from home," Druckenmiller said. "A lot of money has rotated into them. They are overvalued."

"But then you've got a whole other sector of the market that has struggled mightily because of Covid," he added. "They're selling at under-value relative to, say, a three-to-five-year outlook. So the rotation into that would seem entirely rational."

—Fred Imbert

The price of oil rose more than 8.5% on Monday for its best one day advance in six months amid optimism around a coronavirus vaccine. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled up $3.15, or 8.5%, to $40.29 and the European benchmark brent crude was up $3.11, or 7.9%, at $42.56 a barrel.

Oil prices plummeted during the pandemic as demand for oil evaporated during the economic shutdown; however, a vaccine could spur more demand as the economy returns to normal. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said an OPEC+ oil output deal could be adjusted to balance the market. 

— Maggie Fitzgerald

Shares of Beyond Meat moved sharply higher and briefly turned positive after the company said that it would be a supplier for McDonald's' new "McPlant" lineup. McDonald's announced the new offering earlier on Monday morning but did not say that Beyond was involved.

"Beyond Meat and McDonalds co-created the plant-based patty which will be available as part of their McPlant platform," the alternative meat company said in a statement.

Beyond Meat reports quarterly earnings after the bell. The stock last traded down 0.8%.

— Jesse Pound, Amelia Lucas

Fundstrat's Tom Lee said Monday that this rally in the market was just a "baby step" and that the S&P 500 could rise another 10% before the end of the year.

"There's another playbook that people have that they stuck in their drawer on investing which is once we get through Covid and we can see the beginning of the end through a vaccine or therapeutic, there is a really strong cyclical recovery that will take root," Lee said on CNBC's "Halftime Report."

CNBC Pro subscribers can watch the full interview here.

— Jesse Pound

• Pfizer, BioNTech — The pharmaceutical companies saw their stocks rally after releasing trial data that showed their coronavirus vaccine candidate had an efficacy rate of more than 90%. 
• Zoom Video — Shares of Zoom Video dropped more than 12% as traders rotated out of "stay-at-home" stocks in favor of cylcical names after Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine data release.
• New York Times — The newspaper publisher's stock rose 2% after an upgrade to outperform from in-line by an Evercore ISI analyst.

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—Fred Imbert

The market rally was holding steady as the session approached its halfway point. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1,200 points, or 4.2%. The S&P 500's jump was at 2.9%. The Nasdaq was still lagging but had gained 0.8%.

— Jesse Pound

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note last traded up 13 basis points at 0.95%. The benchmark rate earlier touched a high of 0.975%, its highest level since March 20. The yield on the 2-year Treasury bond hit a high of 0.189%, its highest level since June 25.

Bank stocks jumped amid the climb in bond yields. Shares of JPMorgan and Citigroup both surged about 10%. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF is up over 14% Monday, on pace for its best day since Oct. 13, 2008 when the ETF gained 15.46%.

— Yun Li, Gina Francolla

Shares of alternative meat company Beyond Meat lost 8% on Monday morning after McDonald's announced that it would test its own meat-free burger in 2021 as part of its new "McPlant" menu offering. Beyond Meat had provided the meat-free patties for a McDonald's test run in Canada.

— Jesse Pound, Amelia Lucas

Energy stocks moved sharply higher along with oil prices on Monday morning following the news from Pfizer. Shares of Valero, National Oilwell Varco and HollyFrontier were all up more than 20%. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund jumped more than 12%.

— Jesse Pound

The S&P 500, mid-cap S&P 400, Dow Industrials and Dow Transports all hits new intraday record highs in morning trading on Monday. The small-cap Russell 2000 jumped more than 5% to its highest level since September 2018, closing in on its intraday all time high of 1,742.09 from Aug. 31, 2018

— Gina Francolla

Stocks rocketed higher at Monday's open, led by cyclical names most reliant on a successful vaccine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,600 points to 29,925.96, surpassing its previous intraday record of 29,568.57 from Feb. 12. The S&P 500 surged 3.7% out of the gate. The Nasdaq Composite rose just 1.3% as investors rotated out of some of the high-flying tech and stay-at-home plays.

— Yun Li

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed 10 basis points to 0.92% on Monday, its highest level since Wednesday. The 30-year yield jumped 12 basis points to 1.71%. Yields move inversely to prices. The positive vaccine news drove investors out of safe bonds and into risk assets.

"As stock markets rally around the world on the news, bond markets will sell off, driving yields higher and that will cause a repricing across all asset classes," Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance, said in a note.

— Yun Li

Oil prices jumped on Monday morning as positive vaccine news from Pfizer increased optimism about the economic recovery and Saudi Arabia said an OPEC+ deal could be adjusted. Futures for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate popped 8.8% to break above $40 per barrel. European benchmark Brent crude also climbed nearly 9%.

— Jesse Pound

Futures contracts for the Russell 2000 went "limit up" on Monday morning, rising 7%. Below is a brief explanation of what that means:

U.S. stock futures are immediately halted if they hit an upside or downside limit of 7% in non-U.S. trading hours, that is before 9:30 a.m. ET. In effect, these contracts get "pinned" at the 7% limit by the CME Group and are unable to trade above or below the upper or lower bound, respectively, to ensure that opening trade is orderly and not emotional.

CME Group has also recently implemented a "dynamic circuit breaker" for stock futures contracts which halt trading on these instruments if they move up, or down, 3.5% in one hour. In these scenarios, futures are halted for 2 minutes.

—Fred Imbert, Tom Franck

U.S. stock futures jumped in a knee-jerk reaction to the news that the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19. Dow futures last traded up 1,746 points, or 6.2%, while S&P 500 futures gained 4.5%.

— Yun Li, Nate Rattner

Futures contracts tied to the Russell 2000 rallied as investors bet small-cap stocks would greatly benefit from a coronavirus vaccine as it would help the U.S. economy reopen at a faster pace.

Russell 2000 futures were up 7% to 1,758.10, reaching an upside limit set by the CME Group to prevent overly volatile trading moves. Small-cap stocks have struggled in 2020 as investors have flocked into high-flying names the did well as more people stayed at home. The Russell 2000 index is down 1.5% year to date, while the large-cap S&P 500 has gained more than 8%.

—Fred Imbert

• Evercore ISI upgraded New York Times to outperform from in line.
• Telsey upgraded Nordstrom to outperform from market perform.
• Cowen initiated Fisker as outperform.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Cheesecake Factory to buy from hold.
• Bank of America downgraded Biogen to underperform from neutral.
• Barclays downgraded Elanco Animal Health to underweight from overweight.
• Bernstein raised its price target on Peloton to $160 from $120.
• Jefferies downgraded Mattel to hold from buy.

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- Michael Bloom

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday the more than 90% Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech could reverse the direction the pandemic has been going.

"If you think about where we were last week, where we felt that there was very little chance to be able to stop this thing, now suddenly we have hope," Cramer said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Stocks are surging on the news, which Cramer feels is warranted.

"I think that the rally is justifiable," said Cramer. "I think we're going to start a new discussion, and the discussion is what's America going to look like post-Covid."

Despite the positive vaccine news, Cramer said struggling Americans still need a second stimulus bill from the Federal government.

— Maggie Fitzgerald

Shares of AMC Entertainment surged more than 70% in premarket trading Monday following positive news of a coronavirus vaccine proven to be more than 90% effective. The movie theater chain was on the brink of bankruptcy after its revenue plunged more than 90% in the third quarter amid forced shutdowns. Just last month, AMC warned investors it could burn through its existing cash by the end of 2020 or early 2021 without additional liquidity.

— Yun Li

Evercore ISI strategist Dennis DeBusschere told CNBC Monday morning that the vaccine candidate from Pfizer and BioNTech is way more effective than was expected and a positive sign for stocks that move in tandem with the health of the U.S. economy.

"90% is much higher than consensus, which was in the 60-70% range," DeBusschere wrote in an email.

"This is very positive for cyclicals and should put some upward pressure on 10yr yields near term."

Dow futures soared more than 1,000 points after the announcement from Pfizer and BioNTech while the U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield jumped 11 basis points to 0.93%.

—Thomas Franck

Amid news of a successful Covid-19 vaccine, the S&P 500 making a run to the 3,900 level is possible, according to editor of the Sevens Report, Tom Essaye. "It is materially bullish for stocks in the near term," Essaye told clients.

Stocks are set to open sharply higher on news of a more than 90% effective Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.

"Regarding the data, the 90% efficiency rate in preventing COVID-19 is higher than was hoped for...Given election clarity and the calendar (holiday's approaching), a run in the S&P 500 to 3900 is not unreasonable."

— Maggie Fitzgerald

The positive vaccine development could trigger massive outperformance in small-cap names and a rotation into value stocks, according to Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities.

"The Pfizer vaccine news might finally change the war on the virus... this is over the top good news," said Tchir. "Look for large rotation out of 'haves' into 'have nots.' It would not be surprising to see extreme outperformance from small caps (which is also great for high yield), value stocks (still much maligned) and even (somewhat weirdly with Treasury yields moving higher), dividend stocks."

— Yun Li

Shares of Zoom Video tumbled in premarket trading as names benefitting from people staying at home due to the coronavirus pandemic lost their appeal following the release of positive coronavirus vaccine data. Zoom Video traded more than 15% lower in the premarket. Fellow "stay-at-home" stocks Amazon and Netflix dropped 3.4% and 5.4%, respectively. Teladoc Health slid 6.4% and Shopify declined by 5.1%.

Traders had piled into these stocks this year as the pandemic raged on and kept most people from leaving their homes. Zoom Video has skyrocketed 635% year to date. Amazon and Netflix are up 79.2% and 59.1%, respectively, in 2020. Teladoc is up 146.2% this year and Shopify has popped 162.8%.

— Fred Imbert

Companies whose turnaround depends on a vaccine including airlines and cruise lines operators skyrocketed. American Airlines shares were up 25% in premarket trading, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines both jumped 20%. Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line both gained more than 30% in premarket trading Monday.

— Yun Li

Stock futures surged following news that Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective based on a trial study.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,452 points, or 5.2%, while S&P 500 futures jumped 3.8%. Nasdaq 100 futures underperformed with a 0.8% gain as investors rotated out of stay-at-home plays like Zoom Video, which is down more than 10% in premarket trading.

The 90% effective rate from Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech was better than what the market was expecting. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said that a vaccine that was 50% to 60% effective would be acceptable.

— Yun Li