Stock Market Close: US Shares Buoyed By ECB Interest Action

Investors reacted positively Thursday to the European Central Bank’s decision to lower interest rates and engage in a new round of bond-buying as well as overtures between the U.S. and China ahead of the next round of trade talks.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 45.68 points or 0.17% while the S&P 500 gained 0.29% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%.

On the New York Stock Exchange, nearly 3.1 billion shares changed hands with 1,614 issues advancing and 1,339 issues declining. Bank of America (BAC), Baker Hughes (BHGE) and General Electric (GE) led the most actives.

In addition to lowering interest rates by 10 basis points, the ECB announced a new round of bond-buying, committing itself to an ultraloose monetary policy for an extended period. The move is designed to isolate the eurozone from trade tensions and a global downturn. The move commits departing ECB President Mario Draghi’s successor, Christine Lagarde, to negative interest rates and an open-ended quantitative easing program. Lagarde last week indicated she’s on board.

The action had an immediate effect on the euro, sending it up 0.5% against the dollar. The British pound was up 0.19% and the dollar index was off 0.28%.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who derided the Federal Reserve as “boneheads” Wednesday for resisting his call to lower interest rates aggressively, accused the ECB of attempting to depreciate the euro with its move, hurting U.S. exports.

The Federal Open Markets Committee meets next week to set U.S. rates. The FOMC is expected to drop rates by 25 basis points.

On the trade front, Trump held out his own olive branch to China after Beijing said it would exempt 16 U.S. imports from retaliatory tariffs ahead of the next round of trade talks. Trump said he would delay scheduled levies from taking effect on some Chinese imports for two weeks. Trump tweeted he expects the Chinese to again start buying “large amounts of our agricultural products!”

China hopes to narrow the scope of the coming talks in a bid to break an impasse. The Chinese hope to separate national-security issues after talks broke down in May. High-level talks are set for early October.

Elsewhere, Asian markets closed mixed. Hong Kong’s Heng Seng was off 0.26% while Japan’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite both added 0.75%. Australia’s S&P/ASX climbed 0.25%.

At the close, London’s FTSE was up 0.9%, Germany’s DAX added 0.41% and the French CAC was 0.44% higher.

Crude oil futures were off 1.22% while gold was 0.25% higher and silver was off 0.11%.