European stocks head for third straight weekly gain

European stocks rose in morning trading on Friday, resuming their rally after pausing yesterday on profit-taking, while on the cusp of the third straight weekly profit thanks to strong market sentiment following the positive news about Covid-19 vaccines.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2% as of 08:25 GMT, after it closed lower by 0.75% yesterday on profit-taking from the highest since February at 390.54 points.

The pan European index opened higher today, to resume gains after taking a pause yesterday, with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing green.

The retail sector saw the largest gains in Europe today, rising more than 0.75%, thanks to a wave of strong Q3 business results.

From the US, Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate agreed to resume negotiations on a new Covid-19 aid package after the number of cases in the country jumped to new records.

This overshadowed the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's plan not to extend the Federal Reserve's emergency lending programs beyond December 31, which undermines the Fed’s ability to support the financial system.

The Stoxx Europe index gained more than 1.0% so far during this week, heading for its third weekly gain in a row, thanks to continued improved risk appetite.

The American giant "Pfizer" and the German firm "BioNTech" announced on Wednesday that the recent data from the final phase of the clinical trials on their Covid-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective.

While Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was more than 94.5% effective in preventing the disease.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2%, after the index closed higher by 0.4% yesterday, in the first daily gain in 3 sessions.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index rose 0.2%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.4%, Germany's DAX added 0.2%, and the UK's FTSE 100 rose 0.3%.