Oil prices slumped Thursday, a day after spiking over the closure of the Suez canal, while stocks grappled with nagging pandemic concerns and inflation fears.
Both Paris and Frankfurt stocks finished with small gains after having spent most of the day lower as dealers dwelled on worries about rising Covid-19 infections, renewed restrictions and vaccine struggles across much of Europe.
London fell as shares in energy companies were hit by the drop in oil prices.
Wall Street finished higher as traders moved out of the tech-rich Nasdaq and into cyclical equities on the Dow and S&P 500.
