European and United States stock markets mostly rose Tuesday, December 15, on optimism over US stimulus talks and vaccines, but London stumbled ahead of the capital's tightened coronavirus restrictions and as dealers also tracked Brexit trade talks.
"Recent tones out of the EU have highlighted the potential for a breakthrough if the UK and EU are willing to compromise," Joshua Mahony at IG said. London's FTSE 100 fell 0.3% as a strong pound hurt multinationals which dominate the index and whose earnings are mostly in dollars.climbed 1.1% as there was good news on the vaccine front.The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday it had moved forward a meeting to decide on authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by more than a week to December 21.
London faces new tough restrictions as it follows swathes of Britain into the highest tier of containment, the Netherlands was preparing to enter its strictest lockdown since the pandemic began, and New York City could also soon be facing a"full shutdown."