Optimismstill high as global rally cools off

A worldwide stock NEWYORK— market rallysloweddownTuesday even as optimism remains high that the global economymay be on track for a return to normal.

It was second straight day that rising hopes for a coronavirus vaccine had investors reordering which stocks they see winning and losing. The S&P 500 fell 0.1%, pulled down by drops in Big Tech companies like Microsoft, which have managed to thrive amidst the pandemic shutdowns. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell, but small-company stocks and crude oil prices rose in a sign of improving confidence in the broader economy.

The flashpoint for all themoves was Monday’s announcement fromPfizer that a potentialCOVID19 vaccine it’s developing with German partner BioNTech may be 90% effective, based on early but incomplete test results.

“Thiswas such an environment of exuberance, whichmakes sense given some compelling statistics” about immunity response for the vaccine candidate, said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist for Invesco. “But there are still a number of steps.”

Stocks of smaller U.S. companies, which tend to move more with expectations for the economy than their bigger counterparts, rose more than the rest of the U.S. market.

Several areas of the market that got beaten downthrough the pandemic and whose low prices make them look like potentially better values led theway. Energy stocks in the S&P 500 rose 0.9%, for example, though they’re still down nearly 45% for 2020.