Asia stocks under pressure as vaccine rally falters

European stocks slipped lower on Wednesday and gold gained as a sceptical press report undermined some hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine and concern about obstacles to a recovery from the pandemic returned.

Italian bonds sustained their multi-week lows, continuing to gain from a Franco-German plan for a 500 billion-euro coronavirus recovery fund, ignoring a hawkish counter-proposal in the works.

Europe’s STOXX 600 index was 1.6% lower. The blue-chip FTSE 100 was down 0.4% as Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc shed 0.8% after it said it would cut 9,000 jobs and might close some of its factories.