The Danish central bank cut the deposit rate a second time this week

The ECB announced today a full‐blown QE package. Under this programme, the ECB will buy public and private sector securities for an amount of €60 billion a month (including the existing schemes). They will start buying in March and the programme is intended to be carried out at least until the end of September 2016 and will in any case be conducted until they see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation.

Sentiment on European equity markets was cautious ahead of the ECB meeting, but turned positive after Draghi announced a bigger than generally expected asset purchase programme. European stocks initially gained about 0.50%, but trade volatile. In the US, equities trade flat

European Commission’s Consumer confidence unexpectedly improved from ‐10.9 to ‐8.5 in January (‐10.5 expected).

The Danish central bank cut the deposit rate a second time this week, this time from ‐0.20% to ‐0.35%, in an effort to silence speculation it may lack the tools to defend its peg to the euro.

The British government took first steps in an historic transfer of powers to Scotland. According to a draft bill, Scotland will be able to set income tax rates, have some influence over welfare spending and be given the authority to decide how the Scottish parliament and other structures are elected and run.

In the week ending the 17th of January, US initial jobless claims dropped by 10 000, from an upwardly revised 317 000 to 307 000. The consensus was however looking for a more significant decline (to 300 000). The Labour Department said there were no special factors, but we believe that claims are still somewhat distorted by end of year conditions.