European Central Bank President Mario Draghi gave financial markets what they were hoping for when he announced, earlier Thursday, that the ECB will commence an asset-buying program initially valued at $1.3 trillion.
On Wednesday, the rumor floating around was that the ECB would purchase over $69 billion in bonds per month starting in March through the end of 2015. The ECB said it will buy Eurozone bonds until September 2016 while confirming it will reduce costs of long-term loans to banks.
The news was enough to send some Europe ETFs higher, primarily those of the currency hedged variety, such as the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (NYSEArca: HEDJ) and the newly mintedDeutsche X-trackers MSCI EMU Hedged Equity ETF (NYSEArca: DBEZ). [ETFs for ECB Action]
Although it is trading slightly lower today, the Direxion Daily FTSE Europe 3x Bull Shares (NYSEArca: EURL) merits consideration by the risk-tolerant trader betting on a sustained upside for European equities.
Leading up to the ECB meeting, EURL was trending higher with the benefit of some positive technical momentum. For example, the ETF’s relative strength index (RSI) is sporting an upward trajectory coupled with positive signals from the MACD indicator.