ECB, BoE and BoJ refrain from further easing measures

Despite three monetary policy meetings by major central banks over the past two days, there was very little new action.

In the euro area, the European Central Bank kept its main interest rate on hold at 0.75 percent on Thursday, with President Mario Draghi saying that the ECB will not start intervening in bond markets until governments like Spain request a bailout and agree to conditions.

The Bank of England also kept its policy rate unchanged at 0.5 percent after its monetary policy meeting on Thursday and announced no new bond buying.

And today, the Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged at between zero and 0.1 percent and announced no addition to its asset-purchase programme.

There was no monetary policy meeting in the US but the Federal Reserve did release the minutes to its last meeting, which appeared to signal a move towards linking its outlook for interest rates to specific economic conditions such as a decline in the unemployment rate.

Data on Thursday certainly did not suggest an imminent end to the current accomodative Fed policy. US factory orders fell 5.2 percent in August, the biggest decline since January 2009.