London/Sydney — World stocks eased for a third day and oil fell on Thursday tracking overnight weakness in Asia and Wall Street as widening Covid-19 restrictions weighed on market sentiment.
The weaker sentiment was triggered by a late US sell-off overnight that had seen the S&P 500 close down 1.1%, weighed by news that Covid-19 deaths in the world’s biggest economy had passed 250,000, underpinning a host of lockdowns. The positive vaccine news had continued after Pfizer said its Covid-19 vaccine was 95% effective and it would apply for emergency US authorisation within days, after a similar recent report from Moderna.