(MENAFN– ecpulse)
European shares mixed on Thursday, following its advance for seven straight sessions, ahead of ECB monetary decision and important U.S. data.
The ECB will leave its benchmark interest rate at 0.25 percent today, according to median forecasts.
However, many analysts predict an intervention from the Governing Council after the recent drop in inflation far beyond the ECB’s target of 2 percent.
One of the options on the table is pushing down the deposit rates to negative territories, but it seems that using other tools such as buying packages of bank loans and companies or suspending operations to absorb the money spent on buying sovereign bonds under the ECB’s Securities Markets Programme may be better.
In the United States, the focus will be on jobless claims for last week and ISM non-manufacturing for March.
The data will add to recovery signs ahead of the release of the awaited nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
As of 07:09 EST, STOXX EUROPE 600 slipped 0.06% to record 336.73 points. Telecommunications led the decline with a drop of 0.49%, where the largest losses were recorded by Elisa OYJ as its shares plummeted 7.38% to 19.44 EUR.
The largest gains, on the other hand, were led by Aberdeen Asset as its equities rose 4.92% to 435.40 GBP.
Regarding other major European indices, France’s CAC 40 index retreated 0.02% to 4429.99 points, and FTSE 100 increased 0.02% to 6660.53 points. Germany`s DAX 30 plummeted 0.03% to 9620.12 points.
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