Global stock markets exulted on Monday, ending sharply higher after the announcement of a vaccine "90% effective" against Covid-19, which gives hope in the long term a return to normal activity for many companies in distress.

Markets took off after an announcement by US laboratories Pfizer and German BioNTech, which claimed that their vaccine candidate was "90% effective" against Covid-19, according to the ongoing large-scale Phase 3 trial, last step before an application for registration.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose the most since June, gaining 2.95%, and the S&P 500 index gained 1.17%.  Shares Pfizer climbed 7.69%.

European markets soared, with Paris taking 7.57%, Frankfurt 4.94%, London 4.67%, Milan 5.43% and Madrid 8.57%.

Paris, London and Milan posted their best one-session performance since March, and Frankfurt since May. The latter even briefly erased all of its annual losses, a first since the beginning of the health crisis among the major European stock exchanges.

In the oil market, a barrel of North Sea Brent for delivery in January jumped 7.48 percent from Friday's close to $42.40. In New York, the US barrel of WTI for December gained 8.48% to $40.29.

"This news is huge, we have been waiting for it for a very long time!" enthused Daniel Larrouturou, equity manager at Dôm Finance, interviewed by AFP in Paris just after the announcement of the two laboratories.

"This is the news of the year, maybe even the decade," Jochen Stanzl, an analyst at CMC Markets, said in Frankfurt.

In the debt market, risk appetite has caused sovereign rates in countries considered to be the riskiest to crash, such as Greece and Italy, whose ten-year yields have reached new all-time lows. 0.728% and 0.617% respectively.

"The difference in the market is striking: the biggest winners are among the stocks most affected by the pandemic – while the Covid winners are doing badly," said Neil Wilson, an analyst at Markets.com.

Very profitable of the first wave, the Nasdaq index in New York, with a strong technological coloration, fell by 1.53%.

The announcement of Pfizer and BioNTech mainly benefited the sectors most affected by the business restrictions measures, including travel, aeronautics and banking.

Thus, the news made Airbus jump (+18.5%), IAG (+25.5%), Lufthansa (+19.8%), Rolls Royce (+43%), Easyjet (+35.5%) or Carnival (+39%). Financial stocks have not lost a crumb, such as Société Générale (+18.4%), BNP Paribas (+18%) and UniCredit (+13.7%). Oil companies, such as Eni (+12.8%) and Total (+15%), also finished very strong.

On the other hand, a sledgehammer has fallen on the companies that have benefited the most from the containment measures. The videoconferencing platform Zoom Video fell by more than 17% on Wall Street.

Home meal delivery was also at half-mast. In Frankfurt, Delivery Hero fell by 5.8%, Hello Fresh by 15.3%. In London, Ocado fell by 11.5% and Just Eat Takeaway by 8.9%.

The announcement on the vaccine candidate of Pfizer and BioNTech came at a time when the United States and Europe are facing record numbers of new infections.

The accumulation of new restrictions to deal with this second wave could seriously overshadow the economic recovery.

US President-elect Joe Biden remained measured in his reaction on Monday, welcoming a sign of "hope" but warning that the "battle" was still far from being won.

Investors have no doubt that he will become US president in January even if Donald Trump still refuses to concede defeat.

"Investors believe his legal remedies represent nothing more than a face-saving attempt," said Joshua Mahony, an analyst at IG.

On the currency market , the euro fell against the dollar (+0.52% to 1.1812 dollars per euro). The yen lost 1.94% against the dollar to 105.39 yen and 1.43% against the euro to 124.49 yen.

Gold fell 4.38% to $1,865.92 an ounce.