What's going on?

McDonald�s posted strong quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but the fast food giant�s investors might not want to count their McChickens before they McHatch.

What does this mean?

Dadadadadaaa, McDonald�s was certainly lovin� it: the company saw its sales grow by a better-than-expected 57% last quarter versus the same period last year. Stores in international markets benefited from fewer pandemic-related closures, while those in the US � all 14,000 of them � were boosted by both higher prices and its new, in-demand chicken sandwich.

These results are the latest sign that McDonald�s has emerged from a tough year stronger than ever. That�s mostly down to some deft pivoting: the firm invested heavily in expanding its online and mobile order capabilities during the pandemic, which drove digital orders in its top six markets up 70% this year compared to the same period in 2020 (tweet this). And McDonald�s has no intention of letting those sales slip, launching a loyalty program earlier this month that�s already attracted more than 12 million Americans.

Why should I care?

For markets: Sleep with one eye open.
Still, McDonald�s did have a couple of warnings for investors. For one thing, resurgent coronavirus cases are prompting new restrictions in some countries that could hurt this quarter�s sales. And for another, the company�s restaurants are battling with higher costs � for labor, food, and packaging � which could dent the its profits if it can�t offset them with higher prices.

Zooming out: Keep those vaccines coming.
There is some good news in the ongoing head-to-head with the pandemic, though: US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer � which sells one of the most widely used coronavirus vaccines � said it�s delivered more than 1 billion doses of the shot globally, and it�s expecting that to top 2 billion by the end of the year. That was enough to convince the company to increase its revenue forecast from the vaccine by nearly a third to a cool $33 billion.