Early gains in Europe were broad-based, with all major indexes rising, led by Britain’s blue-chip shares. They rose on their first day of trading since the Christmas Eve agreement of a trade deal with the European Union.
Also among the gainers was drugmaker AstraZeneca buoyed by news its COVID-19 vaccine is set to be granted emergency use approval within a few days by the UK government.The launch of the European Union’s vaccination program, hoping to end the widespread lockdowns that have stalled economies across the bloc, saw that positive sentiment shared with the continent, where beaten-down travel and leisure stocks rose 2 per cent.
The prospect of higher demand helped boost oil prices with Brent crude futures and U.S. West Texas Intermediate both up around 1.3 per cent.
The rentier/parasite economy loves disasters. The real economy is killed by this stuff in the long term. As is currently blatantly obvious.