Wall Street opens mixed as investors assess ECB announcements, trade developments
- ECB cuts its deposit rate by 10 bps, starts new QE.
- US Treasury Secretary says they look forward to making progress on trade with China.
- Falling crude oil prices weigh energy shares on Thursday.
Major equity indexes started the day on a mixed note on Thursday as investors assess the latest developments surrounding the US-China trade dispute and the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy announcements. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was posting small losses while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.18% and 0.65%, respectively.
During an interview with CNBC earlier today, US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said that they are looking forward to making meaningful progress in trade talks with China in the next few weeks. Additionally, President Trump tweeted out that China was expected to start buying more agricultural products from the US.
Meanwhile, the ECB announced that it cut its deposit facility rate by 10 basis points to -0.5% and said that they will start a new open-ended quantitative easing program of €20 billion per month.
Among the 11-major S&P 500 sectors, trade-sensitive Technology Index is up 0.55% on the day. On the other hand, a more-than-2% drop in crude oil prices weighs on the Energy Index, which was last down 0.65% on the day.
Author
Eren Sengezer
FXStreet
As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.
