European markets had a mixed opening on Tuesday after the biggest sell-off of the first trading session of a year since 2016. Despite vaccines being deployed, record virus numbers in many areas as well as full lockdowns in a few hotspots, like England, are denting this week’s market sentiment. While many traders keep their eyes and focus on the end of the crisis, yesterday’s drops on most markets have underlined how fragile the current recovery still is. Today’s best performances come from retail and energy shares despite a lack of an OPEC+ oil supply agreement. Discussions are set to restart later today and should sustain the increase in market volatility on both oil markets and energy shares. Meanwhile investors are likely to return their focus back to data and fundamentals with today’s US ISM Manufacturing PMI for December as well as the US State of Georgia’s run-off election that will decide whether the Biden Administration controls the Senate or not.
The announcement of the full lockdown hasn’t significantly impacted stock prices in the UK, the FTSE-100 Index remains inside its bullish channel, slightly below the 6,600pts level.
