European stocks end mix after ECB and Draghi

 Stock prices finished with mix results in Europe on the day that the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to leave rates and the QE program unchanged. Some analyst speculated about a possible extension of the purchase program but Draghi said that an extension was not discussed at the meeting.

The decision of the central bank and Draghi’s statement initially triggered a selloff in equities but then recovered part of the lost ground. In France, the CAC 40 dropped 0.72%, Germany's DAX 30 index fell 0.72%, UK's FTSE 100 index gained 0.18% while in Spain the IBEX 35 climbed 0.95%.

In Wall Street, equity prices were heading lower. The Dow Jones was down 0.25% at 18,480 while the Nasdaq was falling 0.45% at 5,258. Among commodities, gold was falling sharply, trading below $1340 while crude oil (WTI) was up by 4%.

In the currency market, the Euro initially rose across the board boosted by Draghi’s words but then pulled back amid a stronger US dollar. Despite the retreat of the EUR/USD, the euro was still among the top performers of the day.