National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) is going to check in on borrowers which have loan holidays.

According to reporting by The Australian, NAB is going to start contacting the 80,000 borrowers who applied for a mortgage holiday to check if they can begin making repayments.

Initially these checks were meant to only come in at the three month mark, which is what Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA), Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) have agreed to.

What is the bank actually going to check?

Apparently NAB will discuss the current status of the borrower’s loan, what the repayment pause will mean for the plan and what the borrower’s plans are for the next few months during the coronavirus period.

There is a lot of economic pain out there. There’s a reason why huge numbers of people are on jobseeker or jobkeeper.

According to the stats, over the past week banks have approved another 60,000 requests for loan deferrals from customers. That brings the total to 703,000 loans to $211 billion, including business loans.

It would be a good thing for NAB if it can start those loan repayments again in these uncertain times. 

Is the NAB share price a buy?

The NAB share price is down 45% since 21 February 2020. In a few years’ time this price may prove to be cheap. But at this stage it’s very hard to know how much damage NAB is facing over the next 12 months. It was the only bank to pay a dividend out of the big four ASX banks which recently reported. But it is the only bank to do a capital raising so far, at a dilutive discount. It might have been better to defer the dividend like ANZ and Westpac did. 

I don’t like to invest with that much uncertainty when there is a large potential downside. I prefer less ‘risky’ bets, though that’s obviously why NAB shares are down so much to begin with.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) looks set to continue its positive run on Tuesday after very promising coronavirus vaccine news.

At the time of writing, SPI futures are pointing to 2% or 199 points gain for the benchmark index at the open.

This follows a strong night in Europe and on Wall Street which saw the FTSE jump 4.3%, the DAX rise 5.7%, the Dow Jones gain 3.85%, the S&P 500 climb 3.15%, and the Nasdaq index storm 2.45% higher.

What is the vaccine news?

Investors were piling into the share market on Monday night after American biotechnology company Moderna released phase one trial results for its coronavirus vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.

Moderna’s 45 person trial included three dose groups of 15 receiving either a 25, 100 or 250 microgram dose. The participants received two doses of the potential vaccine through an intramuscular injection in the upper arm. These were made approximately 28 days apart.

Today’s results revealed that its vaccine produced COVID-19 antibodies in all 45 participants.

Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer, Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., was very pleased with the results.

He said: “These interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection starting with a dose as low as 25 µg.”

“When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials.”

Moderna is now aiming to get a phase 3 trial underway in July. If this is successful it could mean a vaccine will be ready much sooner than anyone expected.

The company’s chief executive officer, Stéphane Bancel, said: “With today’s positive interim Phase 1 data and the positive data in the mouse challenge model, the Moderna team continues to focus on moving as fast as safely possible to start our pivotal Phase 3 study in July and, if successful, file a BLA.”

“We are investing to scale up manufacturing so we can maximize the number of doses we can produce to help protect as many people as we can from SARS-CoV-2,” he concluded.

More reading

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• Why ASX iron ore miners like BHP aren’t afraid of the China trade war
• 3 top Warren Buffett quotes to start off your week

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The post ASX 200 expected to rocket higher on Moderna COVID-19 vaccine news appeared first on Motley Fool Australia.

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