Yesterday, the Federal Reserve stood firm on its commitment to stay with the status quo while closely monitoring the U.S. economy. Today, the European Central Bank followed suit, leaving the benchmark interest rate at an already record low of 0.75%. While ECB President Mario Draghi is still behind his comment to do whatever is needed to keep the eurozone together, little can be accomplished if the debt-ridden countries don't have faith in the ECB's ability to stanch the crisis.
In Europe, investors fled from high-risk countries and moved into the safety of the German and Dutch debt markets. Spain's 10-year bond yield crossed north of the 7% line of demarcation, while the German 10-year yield scaled down to 1.22%. Domestically, the broad markets lowered after the ECB press conference this morning, as did both WTI and Brent crude futures.
Market Recap
Index |
Gain/Loss |
Gain/Loss % |
---|---|---|
Dow Jones Industrial Average |
(129.45) | (1.00%) |
S&P 500 |
(14.05) | (1.02%) |
Nasdaq | (15.93) | (0.55%) |
WTI Crude | (1.44) | (1.59%) |
Source: Yahoo! Finance as of 2:30 p.m. EDT.
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