Morning Business Report: Moderna shares soar after positive vaccine results as Wall Street rebounds

Wall Street finished higher Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak as all major indexes gained ground.

(LILAMAX)- Wall Street finished higher Wednesday, snapping a three-day losing streak as all major indexes gained ground.

The Dow led the way, rising 124 points. Moderna was a standout performer, with shares soaring 177% after the company reported positive results involving its experimental mRNA melanoma vaccine.

Amazon is also placing a bigger bet on drone delivery. The company’s Prime Air service is projected to reach 500 U.S. cities by the end of the year, with new markets including Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland, Syracuse and Boise.

Amazon’s long-term goal is to deliver 500 million packages by drone annually by the end of the decade. Walmart is also expanding its drone-delivery operations as competition in the emerging market grows.

Meanwhile, a new Harvard Medical School study found flight attendants and pilots had the highest rates of deaths from radiation-associated cancers among the workers studied, even surpassing workers who routinely handle radioactive materials.

Researchers found 7% of flight attendant deaths and 6.7% of pilot deaths were linked to radiation-associated cancers. The study points to repeated exposure to cosmic radiation at high altitudes as a suspected factor.

New federal data also shows exemptions from required childhood vaccines have reached a record high.

More than 4% of U.S. kindergartners had exemptions from required vaccines during the 2025-26 school year, up from 3.6%. That represents about 155,000 children nationwide.