ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers agreed to an unlimited bond purchase program in order to control interest rates and fight speculation of currency breakup. The program, called Outright Monetary Transactions, targets government bonds with maturities between 1-3 years or that length in residual maturity. Purchases would be sterilized.
ECB to leave benchmark rate unchanged at 0.75%.
US initial jobless claims fell 12,000 last week to 365,000.
Equities:
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Nasdaq: 3,136 (+2.2%)
EuroStoxx: +3.4%
Nikkei: +0.01%
Hang Seng: +0.34%
Commodities:
WTI Crude: 94.63 (-0.65%)
Nat Gas: -1.79%
Copper: +0.70%
Corn: +0.98%
FX:
EURUSD: 1.2634 (+0.02%)
DXY Dollar Index: 81.1 (-0.15%)
Rates:
U.S. 10y: 2.80% (+5bp)
German 10y: 1.56% (+8bp)
Spanish 10y: 5.99% (-38bp)
Italian 10y: 5.25% (-25bp)