GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks ease as virus cases climb further; sterling slips

* Wall Street indexes down in early trading
* Sterling slips
* Rising COVID-19 cases in focus

(Updates with early U.S. market action, changes dateline,
previous LONDON)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Global equity indexes were
mostly lower on Tuesday as investors struggled to keep the rally
of recent weeks going with COVID-19 infections still surging,
while Brexit deal talks weighed on sterling.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down slightly in early New York
trading, with new cases threatening to further dampen the
economy and investors awaiting progress in ongoing negotiations
for a fresh COVID-19 relief package.
Nationwide in the United States, COVID-19 infections are at
their peak, with an average of 193,863 new cases reported each
day over the past week, according to a Reuters tally of official
data.
"The rise in cases across the U.S. seems finally to have
galvanized American lawmakers into action, although the $900
billion discussed is certainly well below the mooted levels of
late summer, and even this amount may not make it through
unscathed," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
Investors were trying to assess how widely and quickly
vaccines might be available.
A 90-year-old grandmother became the world's first person to
receive a fully-tested COVID-19 shot as Britain began
mass-vaccinating its people in a global drive.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 17.89 points,
or 0.06%, to 30,087.68, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 4.51 points, or
0.12%, to 3,687.45 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
29.13 points, or 0.23%, to 12,490.82.
Also, Tesla TSLA.O announced a $5 billion capital raise on
Tuesday, its second such move in three months, as the
electric-car maker cashes in on a rally in its shares this year.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.09% and
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed
0.10%.
In the foreign exchange market, sterling GBP= was last
trading at $1.331, down 0.49% on the day, while the dollar index
=USD was up slightly.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that
Britain could abandon post-Brexit trade talks, a day after he
agreed to meet the head of the European Commission in a
last-ditch attempt to break the stalemate. Investors are also awaiting a two-day EU summit that begins
Thursday, and the bloc is ready to set up its planned EU
stimulus without Hungary and Poland, which are maintaining their
veto of the EU budget.
Most U.S. Treasury yields were lower as investors watched
for news on vaccines and their distribution.
The benchmark 10-year US10YT=RR yield was down 2.7 basis
points in morning trading at 0.9014%, close to the 0.9%
threshold it was last below on Dec. 1. Oil prices .LCOc1 .CLc1 were also lower, while spot gold
prices XAU= were higher.

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