Markets fall, COVID-19 cases "to continue to rise"

Markets were mostly lower on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.6 percent.

Earlier in Asia, however, the Shanghai Composite was marginally higher while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent.

Markets fell after news that US regulators paused Eli Lilly’s late-stage COVID-19 trial due to safety concerns and Johnson & Johnson halted its coronavirus vaccine trial after a participant reported an unexplained illness.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 news around the world remained grim.

Europe is tightening measures to contain the pandemic amid a sharp rise in cases.

The Czech Republic imposed a three-week partial lockdown after reporting the region's highest new infection rate per 100,000 people while the Netherlands imposed a four-week partial lockdown.

In the US, cases are also surging again.

"Now we're back up to (about) 50,000 new cases a day. And it's going to continue to rise," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.