Cruiseship stocks post big premarket gains after Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine candidate is 94.5 percent effective

The Dow futures are up 492 points and the S&P futures are up 35.5 points less than hour before markets will open.

Those account for 1.69 percent and 0.98 percent gains, respectively.

The biggest gainer in premarket trading has been Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, which rose 11.91 percent.

Two other cruise lines, Carnival Corp. and Roal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., were up 9.93 percent and 9.04 percent, respectively.

This bullish premarket trading is linked to another positive announcement regarding the pandemic.

Moderna disclosed this morning that its vaccine candidate against COVID-19 is 94.5 percent effective in a phase three trial involving more than 30,000 subjects in the United States.

"This first interim analysis was based on 95 cases, of which 90 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 5 cases observed in the mRNA-1273 group, resulting in a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 94.5% (p <0.0001)," Moderna stated in a news release.

Of the 95 who contracted COVID-19, 11 were deemed to be severe and every one of those were in the placebo group. 

Fifteen of the 95 cases involved subjects who were 65 years and older. Twenty were from diverse communities.

This news comes in the wake of a Pfizer and Biontech's announcement last week that its vaccine candidate is more than 90 percent effective.

Both companies plan on seeking emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.