Potential Covid-19 Vaccine Lifts Uber, Expedia, Yelp, and Other Tech Reopening Plays

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While tech shares are lagging in Monday’s vaccine-driven rally, some tech laggards are showing dramatic gains on the prospect for a return to a more-normal economic environment.

The upbeat news from

Pfizer

(ticker: PFE) on a potential Covid-19 vaccine has investors cruising for re-opening plays, snapping up shares of hotel chains, airlines, and cruise-ship operators. And the search has lifted some tech-sector plays.

• Ride-sharing: Both
  
  Lyft
  
  (LYFT) and
  
  Uber Technologies
  
  (UBER) are obvious bets on a return to business normalcy. Less than a week after winning a big electoral victory in California with the passage of Proposition 22, which allows the company’s to continue to classify workers as contractors, the prospect of a vaccine offers an event bigger potential boost to their prospects. Lyft is the bigger winner, as a pure play on ride-sharing, up 19%. Uber is up 9%, an impressive move, but perhaps tempered by potential slower growth for its food-delivery arm in a recovery.

• Local business plays:
  
  Yelp
  
  (YELP) shares have spiked 24%, adding to gains last week on better-than-expected earnings. The company’s advertising fortunes are directly tied to local restaurants and service providers—and the willingness of consumers to leave their cocoons to eat out and go shopping. Groupon (GRPN), which is zeroed on steering consumers to local market services, is up 6%.

• Online travel agencies: It’s pretty obvious a vaccine would make it more comfortable for everyone to travel, and that has the sector flying.
  
  Trivago
  
  stock (TRVG) is up 27%,
  
  Expedia
  
  stock (EXPE), and
  
  TripAdvisor
  
  stock (TRIP) are both up 18%, and
  
  Booking Holdings
  
  stock (BKNG) is up 14%.

• 
  Xerox Holdings
  
  (XRX): The company’s shares were down more than 46% year to date through Friday, as the market for corporate printers, copiers and consumables crumbled as offices shut down. The potential for an economic recovery has the stock up 8%.

Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]