European Stocks Higher; Strong Economic Data Breeds Optimism By Investing.com – Investing.com

European Stocks Higher; Strong Economic Data Breeds Optimism By Investing.com – Investing.com

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com - European stock markets traded higher Tuesday helped by strong economic data, suggesting the region may be weathering the hit from the Omicron variant more strongly than when the Covid-19 virus first hit.

At 3:45 AM ET (0845 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.9% higher, the in France climbed 0.8% and the U.K.’s rose 0.3%.

U.K. jumped in December, growing 4.6% compared with December 2019, the British Retail Consortium said Tuesday. Another report from Barclaycard showed consumer spending was up 12.2% last month from two years before. 

Adding to the positive news, Spanish rose 4.8% in November, a sharp improvement from the revised drop of 0.7% the previous month.

That said, the spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus shows few signs of slowing down globally, with the United States reporting 1.35 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, the highest daily total for any country in the world. China meanwhile locked down Anyang, a city of some 5 million inhabitants, after discovering local transmission of the Omicron variant, adding to restrictions in place at Xi'an and Tianjin, the world's fourth-largest port.

On the