By Peter Nurse
Investing.com - European stock markets are seen opening largely lower Thursday, as optimism surrounding the latest vaccine news yields to fears for the immediate future due to lengthy lockdowns.
At 2:05 AM ET (0705 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.1% higher, but CAC 40 futures in France dropped 0.9% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.8%.
Recent positive news from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), with the final results of its Covid-19 vaccine trial showing it had a 95% success rate on Wednesday, and earlier Thursday news that the Oxford potential vaccine showed "encouraging" immune response in older adults, have had a limited impact on the markets. Especially with the likes of the U.K., Italy and Spain this week reporting their highest death tolls from the Covid-19 virus since the first outbreak in the spring.
Governments have resorted to partial shutdowns throughout the continent to combat the recent surge in coronavirus cases, and while there has been some success in reducing the rate of infections, it has come at a high economic cost.
The European Central Bank projects that real GDP will fall by 8.0% in the euro area in 2020, but President Christine Lagarde warned this week that the region’s economy was taking a bigger hit from the second wave of the pandemic than expected.
Additionally, Hungary and Poland are now threatening to sabotage the release of hundreds of billions of euros of pandemic relief and budget funds following a row over the rule of law within the European Union.
EU leaders are set to hold a video conference later Thursday to address the holdup in the release of these funds, which are seen as vital given the escalating health crisis and risk of a double-dip recession.
Earnings from the likes of Thyssenkrupp (DE:TKAG) and Kingfisher (LON:KGF) will catch the eye Thursday, while the European economic data slate centers largely around the Eurozone current account release for September.
Oil prices edged lower Thursday, consolidating after climbing to their highest levels since early September during the previous session after a smaller-than-expected build in U.S. stockpiles.
Wednesday's crude oil supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a 768,000-barrel build for the week to Nov. 13, against the forecast 1.650 million. On Tuesday, the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute had reported a 4.174-million-barrel crude gain.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.6% lower at $41.74 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent contract fell 0.3% to $44.22, both remaining well above the $40 mark.
Elsewhere, gold futures fell 0.7% to $1,860.55/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.1849.