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| - Stock markets marked time on Wednesday as a rally fuelled by vaccine hopes petered out despite confirmation that the UK will next week begin rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech drug against Covid-19. As is often the case, stock markets rally on hopes of good news and then fall back when the anticipation becomes reality. "The lack of market reaction suggests that this decision was probably widely expected at some point," noted Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK. On Wednesday, Britain became the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for general use, a major advance in the fightback against the coronavirus. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the "fantastic" news, while urging the public to remain cautious on the day that England exited a four-week lockdown and re-imposed regional curbs. London's FTSE 100 was the only index to post a major gain, although that may have been mostly due at drop in the value of the pound, which tends to boost the value of multinationals with most of their earnings in dollars. The pound slid against the dollar and euro, as EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told diplomats he could not guarantee a trade deal being agreed with Britain ahead of a December 31 deadline. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was posting a slight gain in late morning trading but the Dow and Nasdaq Composite dipped. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had already closed at new record highs on Tuesday. The announcement late Tuesday by Salesforce of a $27.7 billion deal to buy online collaboration firm Slack failed to drive the market higher, with shares in both firms also falling. Lacklustre US jobs data also dampened sentiment. Payroll services firm ADP said private jobs rose 307,000 last month, seasonally adjusted, with firms of all sizes showing increases, though that gain lagged the expected level and was slower than October's upwardly revised gain of 404,000. And there was still uncertainty about whether a new stimulus package would be agreed before the end of year when millions of Americans set lose crucial financial support despite a bipartisan group of US lawmakers having offered a $908-billion compromise. "It is hard to get excited stocks given the elevated levels and uncertainty over how much stimulus Congress will be able to deliver before the end of the year," said Edward Moya at currency trading platform Oanda. Elsewhere in trading, oil prices rose on reports that OPEC and other major producers have made progress towards reaching an agreement on extending output cuts that have provided support to the commodity through the pandemic. They were set to meet again on Thursday. London - FTSE 100: UP 1.2 percent at 6,463.39 points (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.5 percent at 13,313.24 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP less than 0.1 percent at 5,583.01 (close) EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,521.32 New York - Dow: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 29,812.30 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.1 percent at 26,800.98 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.1 percent at 26,532.58 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,449.55 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.2088 from $1.2068 at 2200 GMT Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3342 from $1.3423 Dollar/yen: UP at 104.55 yen from 104.32 yen Euro/pound: UP at 90.58 pence from 89.87 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.1 percent at $45.47 per barrel Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.8 percent at $48.28 per barrel burs-rl/pvh
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