In this file photo the fearless girl statue and the European bourses retreated after major gains earlier in the week, along with Wall Street indices, with investors anticipating a gloomy US jobs report today. — AFP pic
The euro rose and southern European bond yields slipped after the ECB added another €600 billion to its already gigantic stimulus war chest, and said it would continue its pandemic bond-buying for another year at least. But “the improvement has been tepid compared with the speed at which economic indicators plummeted in the preceding months”, the former French finance minister added.
At first, European stock markets were unimpressed, with investors locking into profits “after enjoying a very bullish session yesterday”, as David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets UK, put it.While the Dow mustered a narrow gain, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq retreated after weekly labor data showed another 1.9 million people applied for jobless claims last week taking the total to more than 42 million in the wake of coronavirus shutdowns.