The daily business briefing: December 8, 2021

Stock futures rise after Pfizer says 3 vaccine doses provide protection against Omicron, American Airlines says CEO Doug Parker is retiring, and more

Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccines
Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccines
(Image credit: DANIEL LEAL/AFP via Getty Images)

1. S&P 500, Nasdaq futures rise after Tuesday's big gains

U.S. stock futures rose early Wednesday after Pfizer said early tests indicated that three doses of the coronavirus vaccine it developed with BioNTech provide significant protection against the new Omicron variant. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were up by 0.5 percent at 7 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed earlier losses and were up by 0.4 percent as Wall Street continued a strong rebound from the recent Omicron sell-off. All three of the main U.S. indexes jumped on Tuesday after preliminary reports suggested the new variant causes less severe COVID-19 than the still-widespread Delta variant. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained 2.1 percent and 3 percent, respectively, on Tuesday, their best days since March. The Dow rose by 1.4 percent.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.