European stocks opened higher on Tuesday, chasing Monday’s momentum from Wall Street as concerns continue over the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines across the continent.
Broad worries about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Europe persisted into Tuesday, after contributing to driving down European stocks on Monday as the Dow DJIA, +0.53% and S&P 500 SPX, +0.65% indexes posted a third day of record highs on Wall Street. The latest inoculation worries center on the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands joined countries across Europe on Monday, pausing the use of the vaccine following concerns that it could contribute to blood clots.
“The problems are also likely to delay the timeline of an economic reopening across Europe, as the vaccination program sees vaccine shortages get more acute, with the result that more people are likely to become infected, and possibly die,” Hewson said.