Europe close: Stocks shake off doubts around Covid-19 vaccine

Stocks across Europe recovered on Wednesday as optimism over the gradual easing of lockdowns across many countries helped to offset doubts raised during the previous session around one of the most promising vaccine candidates against Covid-19.

Wall Street had closed lower during the previous session after researchers from John Hopkins University and Yale questioned the data published by Moderna Therapeutics around its early clinical trial results for its vaccine candidate, although the latter of those two researchers did say he was "cautiously optimistic".

Traders were also keeping tabs on the news-flow from Capitol Hill around a possible third package of government support measures for the US economy.

"Questions over the validity of the Moderna trial have eased recent market strength, although traders are wary of betting against the wave of stimulus," said Josh Mahony at IG.

"However, that stimulus is likely to maintain a bullish trend for gold."

By the end of trading, the Stoxx 600 had added 0.98% to 342.82, alongside a 1.34% advance for the German Dax to 11,223.71 while the French Cac-40 was up by 0.87% to 4,496.98 for

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were up by 2.25% to $35.42 a barrel on the ICE.

There was little in terms of fresh economic data to guide investors.

However, Eurostat did revise down its initial estimate for headline euro area consumer prices in April from a 0.4% rise year-on-year to 0.3%.

Its estimate of core prices was also revised lower, from 0.9% to 0.7%.