US stock market opens higher with tech, pharma gains

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - US stock market opened higher on Monday with gains in technology and pharmaceutical companies' stocks.

The Dow Jones jumped 232 points, or 0.7%, to 34,107 at 9.40 a.m. EDT (1340GMT) with IBM adding 1.7%. The S&P 500 was up 17 points, or 0.4%, to 4,199.

The Nasdaq was up 19 to 13,982 with pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna increasing 1.2% and 4.8%, respectively.

Distributed vaccine doses are at almost at 313 million in the US with over 245 million having been administered as of early Sunday. So far, more than 104 million people, or 31.6% of the US population, have gotten two doses, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures.

The US' largest crypto exchange platform Coinbase added 2.5% at the opening bell with recent gains in cryptocurrencies.

While the world's largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin surpassed the critical $57,000 resistance level over the weekend and was trading above $58,200 at the time, the biggest altcoin Ethereum climbed to an all-time high of $3,204 earlier.