Friday 9 December 2016

Markets rise as ECB extends asset purchases

Markets rose on Thursday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to a new record high, the STOXX Europe 600 jumped 1.2 percent and the Nikkei 225 and Shanghai Composite both rose 0.7 percent.

West Texas Intermediate crude jumped 2.2 percent and US 10-year Treasury yields rose seven basis points to 2.41 percent.

The European Central Bank sent mixed signals at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday.

The ECB announced that its asset-buying programme will be extended from March next year to the end of 2017 but at a reduced pace of 60 billion euros from April from the current 80 billion euros.

Despite the reduced pace of buying, ECB President Mario Draghi told a press conference that there "is no question about tapering".

The ECB also added that if "the outlook becomes less favorable or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment of the path of inflation", then it would increase the programme again in terms of size and/or duration.

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