Markets mixed, “death rate will double” in the US after Thanksgiving

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

The STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.1 percent but the Nikkei 225 rose 0.9 percent. The US stock market was closed for a holiday.

Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at Spreadex, said that “the wider market is still in an uptrend” but acknowledged that “there are plenty of negative headlines out there for investors to wait and think of the near-term effects”.

Indeed, COVID-19 remains on the minds of many as Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany will face restrictions on public life for the foreseeable future while UK health minister Matt Hancock announced that several parts of England will be forced to live under the toughest category of COVID-19 restrictions when a national lockdown ends on 2 December.

In the US, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals hit a record for the 17th straight day Thursday.

And with many Americans ignoring the CDC's recommendation not to travel for Thanksgiving, experts expect infections to surge further.

“I expect that the daily death rate will double in the next 10 days,” said Dr Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University. “We'll be seeing close to 4,000 deaths a day.”