Markets mixed, ECB to keep rates on hold until 2020

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 and the Nikkei 225 were flat and the Shanghai Composite fell 1.2 percent.

The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged on Thursday and extended the period it expects rates to remain on hold through at least the first half of 2020.

However, some analysts were unimpressed.

“Instead of taking a rate increase off the table, it instead decided to simply push the first hike further out. Head still in the sand,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, in a note.

Still, Paul Brigandi, co-head of portfolio management and head of trading at Direxion, suggested that the “more dovish stance from the ECB today and the Fed earlier this week” may have “kind of balanced” investors' concerns over trade.