Morning Report 14 Jul 20: US sharemarkets were mixed in a volatile trading session on Monday

The Dow Jones jumped more than 500 points, the S&P500 index briefly turned positive for the year and the Nasdaq hit record intra day highs earlier in the session. Shares of German biotech firm BioNTech (+10.6%) and Pfizer (+4.1%) both lifted as two of their experimental coronavirus vaccines received the US FDA's "fast track" designation. PepsiCo shares rose 0.3% after the snack-maker reported stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings. But shares erased gains in the final hour of trading as US COVID-19 infections continued to surge with California announcing plans to close restaurants, movie theatres and bars. Growing US-China tensions over the South China Sea also damaged sentiment. Shares of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet and Microsoft all traded down by up to 4.2%.The Dow Jones index rose by 10.5 points or 0.04%. The S&P500 index lost 0.9%. And the Nasdaq index fell 226 points or 2.1%. 

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