What happened
Shares of Peloton Interactive (PTON -0.98%) rose on Thursday, as investors bid up stay-at-home stocks. As of 3:28 p.m. EST, Peloton's stock price was up 5.8%.
So what
Great news from Moderna and Pfizer on the coronavirus vaccine front has investors eagerly looking forward to a return to normalcy. But the pandemic is unlikely to end until well into 2021 at the earliest, due in part to the time it will take to vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of people around the world.
In the meantime, COVID-19 case counts are soaring. Worse still, the U.S. reported more than 3,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday alone.
Peloton's stock climbed on Thursday. Image source: Peloton.
The alarmingly high number of COVID-19 cases -- and a new wave of lockdowns and other social-distancing measures that governments are enacting to slow the spread of the disease -- are likely to keep more people out of gyms and searching for home-based fitness solutions. That, in turn, is likely to boost sales of Peloton's popular stationary bikes and treadmills.
Now what
Investors should note that Peloton's competition is intensifying, with Apple set to launch its new Fitness+ service on Dec. 14. Still, there will likely be more than one winner in the rapidly growing home-based fitness market, and Peloton appears well positioned to be one of them.
