All eyes were focused on Europe early Thursday, as President of The European Central Bank Mario Draghi announced he would add 1.2 trillion dollars to the over 66 billion dollar quantitative easing program that was already in place. Draghi cited turmoil in China and slow global growth as his reasoning for the added stimulus.
Quantitative easing programs print extra currency in order to stimulate the economy, As a result, the Euro dropped 1 percent but The Stoxx 50 Index, which is comprised of Europe’s leading companies, rose 2.2%.
This announcement was made in the morning and caused positive movements on our markets as well. By 11 AM all three major market indexes were up over 1% and oil was up over 48 dollars a barrel. As the day wore on, fear of a disappointing Federal Jobs Report, scheduled to drop on Friday, caused all three indexes to relinquish that 1% gain and caused oil prices to drop below 47 dollars a barrel.
Keep an eye out for this Jobs Report from The Federal Reserve, as it is seen as a key piece of data they will use to make a decision on interest rates later this month.
Here are the final numbers from Thursday on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 16,374.76 (+23.38)
NASDAQ: 4,733.50 (-16.48)
S&P 500: 1,951.13 (+2.27)
