The equities markets and stock exchange traded funds are recovering from the latest Eurozone induced fallout after the European Central Bank promised to defend the euro currency.
The iShares S&P 500 Index (NYSEArca: IVV) was up 1.2% and the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEArca: DIA) was 1.3% higher at last check Thursday.
ECB President Mario Draghi stated Thursday that they will do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro, hinting at intervention in the bonds market, specifically in Spain and Italy where surging yields are threatening the private sectors.
“To the extent that the size of these sovereign premia hamper the functioning of the monetary policy transmission channel, they come within our mandate,” Draghi said in a speech at the Global Investment Conference, Bloomberg reports. “Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro,”
“It is a big deal,” Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab Corp., said in another Bloomberg article. “The markets have been looking for a more definitive acknowledgement by key people like Draghi that they are willing to do what they need to do. In the case of the ECB, we feel that if they want to save the euro, it would involve true quantitative easing,”
The vote of confidence immediately boosted European stocks, with the EURO STOXX 50 Price EURO Index gaining 4.3% Thursday. The Vanguard MSCI Europe Index (NYSEArca: VGK) added 3.5% and the iShares S&P Europe 350 (NYSEArca: IEV) rose 3.56%.