(As of 7:05 am PST)
Early stock gains are fading
quickly this morning as investors digested fresh stimulus measures announced by
the European Central Bank Thursday. Mario Draghi announced the ECB will cut its
deposit rate from -0.2% to -0.3% while
maintaining the pace of bond purchases at 60 billion euros per month going
forward. The central bank President also revealed at his press conference this
morning that the ECB’s asset purchase program will likely run on until March
2017 versus the September 2016 timeline originally laid out. The ECB’s fresh
policy announcements were disappointing to European investors who expected the
central bank to do more after recent weeks of dovish comments from
policymakers. European markets sold off on the policy flop with most benchmarks
trading with losses of over 2% heading into the final hour of the session. The
ECB news cut into early gains on Wall Street as well, where the futures market
looked primed to open with a healthy uptick. Economic data at home is mixed
today, with jobless claims rising slightly in the prior week but still hovering
near a 15 year low. Investors may also be hungover from yesterday’s economic
outlook from Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen and her comments indicating support of
a rate increase in December. Asian stocks finished Thursday’s session mixed.
Commodity prices are up, including a 1% rise in oil prices ahead of this week’s
OPEC meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment