LONDON – European stocks were modestly higher Wednesday morning as the coronavirus pandemic and political developments in the US remain a major concern for investors.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.3% in early trading, with banks adding 2.4% to make gains, while healthcare stocks broke the upward trend to fall 0.9% lower.
International markets are watching two second elections in Georgia on Wednesday that will determine control of the US Senate.
Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue face Democratic challengers Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
If both Democrats win, that would result in a 50-50 position in the upper room, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker to put the party in control of the Senate. NBC News is now projecting that Warnock has loosened Loeffler, while the race between Perdue and Ossoff remains too close to call.
US stock futures were mixed in the early hours of Wednesday; Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up more than 100 points, while S&P 500 futures were flat and Nasdaq 100 futures were down more than 200 points.
European investors focused on the latest coronavirus developments, with England entering a third national lockdown on Tuesday and Germany extending its own lockdown on Tuesday until January 31. Concerns are growing about a new strain of the virus found in South Africa; former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned Tuesday that the new variant appears to inhibit antibody drugs.
On Wednesday, investors look forward to the European Medicines Agency’s review of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine.
Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Wednesday as developments shifted focus to Chinese technology giants and regional energy stocks.
Shares of Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba were followed by investors Wednesday after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transactions with eight Chinese software applications. That included WeChat Pay and Alipay from Ant Group. The order will not take effect until Trump leaves office.
Wednesday there are no big earnings; The final composite purchasing manager index (PMI) data for the eurozone is expected in December.
In terms of individual price movements, Nordic Entertainment climbed more than 6% to lead the Stoxx 600, while Diasorin from Italy was down 3.5%.
– CNBC’s Eustance Huang and Fred Imbert contributed reporting to this report.