European markets close lower as nerves persist over retail trading mania, vaccines
European markets closed lower Friday as market jitters persisted over a retail trading frenzy that has rocked Wall Street.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended the session down by 1.9%, with retail stocks shedding 2.6% to lead losses as all sectors slid into negative territory.
Sentiment has been jolted by a surge in speculative trading from retail investors, and several e-brokers took steps to curb the deliberate buying of heavily-shorted names on Thursday after a week of huge and seemingly synthetic moves in unfavored names like GameStop, spurred by Reddit group WallStreetBets.
Also on Friday, the European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine developed by British pharma giant AstraZeneca for emergency use in the EU, around a month after it was first given the greenlight in the U.K., which recently left the bloc.
But the European Commission also on placed temporary controls on the export of coronavirus vaccines made inside the bloc, following a spat with AstraZeneca and wider supply issues.
Reference: CNBC
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