Turkish lira tumbles; pandemic worries hit European markets – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Latest: Turkish lira slumps to record low
• Selloff sends lira though 13/$1 for first time
• Erdoan insists country will focus on growth, employment and exports

Earlier:

• US releases 50m barrels of oil in effort to cool prices
• AstraZeneca CEO: No regrets on Covid-19 vaccine
• European markets hit three-week low on lockdown worries
• AO World warns of product shortages, rising price and shipping costs

Europe's Covid-19 surge has pushed confidence among European businesses down to its lowest level since January.

The latest survey of purchasing managers from across the eurozone shows that expectations have fallen this month, to a ten-month low.

Not surprisingly, given the mix of supply delays, soaring costs and renewed COVID-19 worries, business optimism has sunk to the lowest since January, adding to near-term downside risks for the eurozone economy."

Antibodies decline over time....What remains, and is very important, is this T-cell response.

You may be infected but then they come to the rescue and you don't get hospitalised."

In the UK, there was a big pickup in infections but not so many hospitalisations relative to Europe.

In the UK, this vaccine was used to vaccinate older people, whereas in Europe initially people thought the vaccine doesn't work in older people.