Thursday 7 June 2012

Markets surge as ECB does nothing

The European Central Bank left interest rates at 1.0 percent on Wednesday. President Mario Draghi said the bank was not open to trading with governments on the policy response to the crisis, putting the onus firmly on euro zone governments to solve the debt crisis.

Markets jumped anyway. Stocks rallied over 2 percent for their biggest gains this year while German bund and US Treasury yields rose.

Economic data on Wednesday were mixed.

Eurozone GDP was confirmed to be unchanged in the first quarter. However, German industrial output fell 2.2 percent in April from the previous month while Spanish industrial output plunged 8.3 percent in April from a year earlier.

In contrast, the US economy expanded at a moderate pace from early April to late May, according to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.

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