European stocks are expected to open sharply lower on Tuesday, with futures reversing themselves on new fears around the omicron Covid variant and vaccines.
The U.K.'s FTSE index is seen opening 83 points lower at 6,957, Germany's DAX 251 points lower at 15,029, France's CAC 40 114 points lower at 6,662 and Italy's FTSE MIB down 486 points at 25,540 according to data
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times that he expects existing vaccines to be less effective against the new variant. It could take months to develop and ship an omicron-specific vaccine, according to Bancel.
Bancel told CNBC that it will take months to develop and ship a vaccine that targets the omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.
He said it will take at least two weeks to figure out how much the omicron mutations have affected the effectiveness of the vaccines.
He said that if the vaccine dropped too much, they might have to give a higher dose to protect people.
Concerns over the newly discovered omicron Covid variant appeared to ease as European and U.S. stocks rebounded on Monday.
The stock market in the U.S. got a big boost after President Joe Biden said that economic restrictions in response to the omicron variant are currently off the table.
The South African doctor who first spotted the new strain described the symptoms as mild.
The November jobs report on Friday is expected to show solid jobs growth, as investors look ahead to key economic data this week. 581,000 jobs are expected to have been added in November.
Data releases include flash inflation data for the euro zone in November, France's final third-quarter gross domestic product data as well as German unemployment figures for November.
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CNBC's Eustance Huang and Spencer Kimball contributed to the report.
