European stocks made small gains on Thursday, as investors trading during the holiday period noted rising cases of Covid-19 and contemplated the outlook for the year ahead.
The regional Stoxx 600 index rose 0.3 per cent, having closed 0.1 per cent lower on Wednesday. London’s FTSE 100 share gauge traded flat, after adding 0.7 per cent in the previous session when it reopened following the Christmas break. France’s Cac 40 gauge ticked up 0.3 per cent while Germany’s Dax was steady.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.1 per cent and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4 per cent lower.
Futures contracts tracking Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 index gained 0.2 per cent, as did those tracking the technology-focused Nasdaq 100 gauge. The S&P had on Wednesday inched up 0.1 per cent to a record closing high, while the Nasdaq Composite closed 0.1 per cent lower.
Although cases of Covid-19 are on the rise across much of the world, investors have taken note of preliminary studies suggesting the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant may result in a lower share of hospitalisations among infected patients than earlier strains.
“The markets are reflecting the new reality that Covid is here to stay albeit more on our terms than its,” said Kevin Philip, managing director at Bel Air Investment Advisors. “Next year, in my opinion, we are facing less of a Covid-influenced world, and a return toward normalcy.”
Still, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director-general, warned on Wednesday of a potential “tsunami of cases”, arguing that Omicron’s high transmissibility could yet “increase hospitalisations and deaths”.
France on Wednesday registered its highest number of daily infections since the start of the pandemic, while the number of confirmed cases in the UK jumped to a record 183,000. The US seven-day rolling average rose above 265,000 on Tuesday, the country’s highest-ever daily tally, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In government debt markets, the yield on the benchmark US 10-year Treasury note was steady at about 1.54 per cent. The equivalent 10-year German Bund yield fell 0.01 percentage points to minus 0.19 per cent. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
Oil prices dipped, with the global benchmark Brent crude down 0.4 per cent to $78.97 per barrel.
