These Are the Stocks to Watch as COVID-19 Enters Its Next Phase

These Are the Stocks to Watch as COVID-19 Enters Its Next Phase

The first pill to treat Covid-19 is on its way and vaccine producers are rolling out booster shots in wealthy countries. For investors, the next stage of the pandemic means a tougher landscape for stockpicking.



The success of Merck & Co.’s oral antiviral treatment in a clinical trial has shifted the momentum in the stock market, weighing on shares of the companies that developed the most effective vaccines, Moderna Inc. and the duo of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE.



Nineteen months into the pandemic, a successful rollout of a Covid-19 pill could quicken and broaden the world’s recovery, opening up a plethora of investment opportunities in stock markets.



Here are some stocks seen by traders as possible winners and losers:



Pill Makers



Dozens of companies around the globe have said they’re trying to do what Merck appears to have succeeded at: Develop an easily administered treatment that reduces the risk of serious illness or death for people infected with coronavirus. For most of them, the effort has come to nothing, and after brief share spikes, their stocks have fallen back.



Among the bigger companies still working on antivirals are Pfizer, Shionogi & Co. and Roche Holding AG with