European stock and futures markets took a tumble on the disappointing news that the ECB refrained from lowering interest rates further at today’s monetary policy meeting. The Euro initially gained strength against the Pound and the Dollar but has weakened again since the end of the ECB press conference.
Stock markets suffer losses
By 2.05pm, the Euro STOXX 50, as well as the German DAX, lost -1.29%. The FTSE100 dropped 0.27%.
After the initial drop, stock markets recovered some of their losses.
At market close the Euro STOXX 50 was down 0.25%, the DAX was down 0.75% and the FTSE100 was up 0.18%.
Futures fall
By 3.05pm, Euro STOXX 50 futures dropped 25 points. DAX 30 futures lost as much as 114.50 points. FSTE100 futures retracted gains from earlier in the day, to +15.5 points.
However, futures also regained a significant part of their losses by market close.
Euro STOXX 50 futures closed down 8 points and DAX30 futures lost 81 points. FTSE100 futures were up 16.5 points.
Euro strengthens against Pound and Dollar
The EUR/GBP gained 0.56% between 12.10 and 2.20pm, to a week high of 0.84892. It later withdrew 0.25%, to 0.84678 by 4.27pm.
The EUR/USD rose to a new two-week high at 1.13157 by 2.20pm. After peaking at 1.13157, the rate retracted 0.41% to stand at 1.12690 at 4.34pm.