london european markets closed in negative territory on friday as concern over new lockdown measures political uncertainty and a reemergence of covid19 cases in china dented the positive sentiment generated by us presidentelect joe bidens 19 trillion stimulus plan  the paneuropean stoxx 600 ended the session down by 1 and logged a weekly loss of 08 basic resources shed 31 on friday to lead losses as all sectors traded in negative territory except health care which gained 07 biden who takes office on jan 20 on thursday announced details of the american rescue plan which includes increased federal unemployment payments extended through september and direct payments to many struggling americans of 1400 markets in asiapacific started brightly on friday but tailed off by the afternoon as rising covid19 cases in china which have led to lockdowns in several cities resurfaced concerns about an imminent global economic recovery on wall street stocks fell on friday as major us banks released their quarterly results kicking off the earnings reporting season back in europe italy has been plunged into political turmoil once again as former prime minister matteo renzi decided to pull his support for the current coalition government on wednesday current prime minister giuseppe conte resisted calls to resign despite being stripped of the coalitions parliamentary majority meanwhile the whole dutch government collectively resigned on friday after a scandal involving the mismanagement of childcare funds which drove thousands of families into financial hardship in germany the twoday special congress of the ruling christian democratic union party began friday with chancellor angela merkels potential successor due to be selected on saturday