Brent jumps nearly 10% on Covid-19 vaccine news

Brent crude continued to rise as the US market opened on Monday, jumping nearly 10% and hit a 4-week high, after positive news about a strongly recommended Covid-19 vaccine, which increased the already high market sentiment after the Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the US presidency.

Brent rose 9.75% to the highest since October 12 at $43.46, after opening at $39.60, and hit a low of $39.48. 

Brent crude futures fell 2.5% on Friday, posting the second straight daily loss, on global demand concerns due to lockdown restrictions in Europe to curb the second wave of the coronavirus.

Oil prices gained around 4.5% last week, posting the first weekly gain in 3 weeks, thanks to strong odds for Joe Biden to win the US presidential election.

The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the German biotech firm BioNTech stated on Monday that their Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, according to recent data from the final phase of the clinical trials.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden won the US presidential elections, becoming the 46th president of the USA, and most voted for in the US history after exceeding 75 million votes, while incumbent President Donald Trump has yet to concede the results. 

Biden's win is expected to help in passing a huge fiscal stimulus in the US to support the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden will also adopt a more-free approach in global trade, which means easing the ongoing trade dispute with China, the world's second-largest economy.

After Joe Biden's victory in the election, he and his team hastened to work on a solution for the ongoing health crisis, as the number of Covid-19 infections in the US has exceeded 10 million cases, according to Reuters.