EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

Local emergency personnel and authorities evacuated Frankfurt's populated downtown area to safely diffuse an unexploded World War II bomb discovered.

Christine Lagarde moves to a whole new world as president of the European Central Bank.

The European Central Bank's Benoît Cœuré shared the opinion of Agustín Carstens, a Mexican economist, that bitcoin is "a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster."

ECB head Mario Draghi also denied Trump administration charges the euro is being manipulated, creating a massive trade deficit with Germany.

The preparations illustrate a heightened state of alert ahead of a June 23 referendum on Britain’s future in the European Union.

Yields on Germany’s 10-year sovereign bonds plunged into negative territory for the first time amid concerns over a potential Brexit.

The European Central Bank, already in the midst of a massive quantitative easing program, kept monetary policy unchanged Thursday.

Athens hopes the measures will help it unlock funds it needs to pay IMF loans and ECB bonds maturing in July.

Weakness in global growth and uncertainty associated with the looming Brexit referendum are likely to hurt the region’s economy this year.

The 19-nation bloc grew at its fastest pace in a year in the first quarter of 2016, but consumer prices fell more than expected.

European markets started the day on a wobbly note, with investors wary ahead of a European Central Bank policy meeting Thursday.

The ECB president brushed off German criticism of his ultra-loose monetary policy Thursday and vowed to use all the tools at his disposal to boost growth.

European Central Bank officials, including President Mario Draghi, will focus on defending the central bank’s policy that has recently come under severe criticism in Germany.

Investors also will be looking at the European Central Bank for its next move on its bond-buying program.

Six of the world’s central banks have introduced negative rates, most notably the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank

The minutes of the March meeting, when the central bank slashed its interest rates to record lows, will be released at 7:30 a.m. EDT Thursday.

Despite attempts by the European Central Bank to bolster economic growth, confidence in Europe’s economy is faltering.

Lending to eurozone companies and households grew at its fastest pace since late 2011 in February.

The European Central Bank surprised financial markets Thursday morning by dropping its main refinancing rate to zero from 0.05 percent.

Facing the growing risk of a deflationary spiral, the central bank looks set to cut its deposit rate even further at its policy meeting Thursday.

Oil fell back below $40 a barrel while China reported that its exports slumped 24 percent in February.