Global markets decline on no policy action by ECB

European Central Bank (ECB) disappointed the street, which left rates unchanged on Thursday. It has not even announced any new policy measures.

ECB President Mario Draghi says, “ECB may undertake outright open market operations of a size adequate to reach its objective.”

“We will design appropriate modalities for such policy measures over the coming weeks.”

Takeaways from the meet: Basically a strong hint at bond buying, but it won't come easy.

On ESM bank license - ECB says, it is upto the EU government’s to change the structure; the current structure doesn’t facilitate it.

Draghi said that market had misread his speech in London and gotten ahead in thinking about imminent bond buying.

US jobless claims came in at 3,65,000, which was mild better than expectations of 3,70,000.

US markets at close: Dow Jones went down 0.7% to 12,878.9 and S&P 500 Index too fell 0.7% to 1,365 while Nasdaq Composite was down 0.4%

European markets at close: DAX plunged 2.2% and CAC dropped 2.7% while FTSE was down 0.9%. Spain tanked 5.2% and Italy crashed 4.6%

Asia Today

Nikkei was down 1.4%

Taiwan Weighted fell 0.7%

Hang Seng declined 0.7% and Kospi slipped 0.6%

Straits Times went down 0.3% whereas Shanghai gained 0.2%

SGX Nifty moved down 0.5% to 5220

Currencies

Euro hit all-time low as against Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar

Euro hit a low of 1.213 against the US dollar yesterday, which was at 1.217 today morning

Dollar Index touched a high of around 83.4 today morning

Commodities

There was hardly any reaction from Brent crude yesterday, which settled down 6 cents to just below USD 106 a barrel

Middle East concerns and North Sea production issues supported the crude.

WTI crude was down 2% to USD 87.1 a barrel

Gold slipped below USD 1600 an ounce

What to watch out for

US Employment rate

US Non farm payrolls

ISM Services Index