Markets mixed as COVID-19 vaccine hopes give way to restriction concerns

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.8 percent.

Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5 percent but the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4 percent.

“You see the market really kind of wanting to move in one direction, and then I think the vaccine news was certainly a catalyst to accelerate that a little bit,” said Jeff Mills, chief investment officer at Bryn Mawr Trust.

Still, the near-term economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to worry some investors.

“We are now facing the biggest number of economic restrictions since the spring, and that will weigh on economic growth and, potentially, earnings,” wrote Tom Essaye, founder of The Sevens Report.

“With infection and hospitalisation rates rising, and the risk that current lockdown restrictions either remain in place, or get extended into 2021, the probability that any economic damage will become permanent is only likely to increase,” Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets said in a note.