European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde addresses a press conference on the Eurozone’s monetary policy, at the central bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on July 18, 2024.
LONDON — European stocks rose Thursday as investors in the region digested the European Central Bank's move to further ease monetary policy.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally closed 0.78% higher. All major regional bourses ended the day in the green, with Germany's DAX closing 0.97% higher.
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WATCH HERESectors were also mostly in positive territory as tech and mining stocks jumped 2% and 2.38% respectively.
The European Central Bank (ECB) slashed rates again by 25 basis points on Thursday, marking its second reduction to the deposit rate this year, but said it was not "pre-committing" to a future path for rates.
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SIGN UP The ECB's key interest rate — which helps to price all sorts of loans and mortgages across the bloc — is now at 3.5% after years of aggressive hikes.
The ECB's meeting comes just days ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's Sept. 17-18 meeting, at which it's expected to begin its own rate-cutting cycle.
In markets, shares of Swiss pharmaceuticals firm Roche fell as much as 4.5% after it said Wednesday that positive results released in July from an early-stage trial of its experimental weight-loss pill were based on just six patients. Shares closed 2.16% lower.
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Novo Nordisk shares recorded their best day in a month LSEG data showed, climbing 3.08% before paring gains slightly and finishing the day 2.66% higher. Shares were boosted by news that its experimental anti-obesity pill could be more effective than its existing Wegovy injection.
European investors are also digesting the latest consumer price index report from the U.S. that reflected a 0.2% increase in consumer prices in August, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.5% — its lowest level since February 2021.
Month-over-month core CPI — which does not include volatile food and energy prices — came out slightly hotter than expected, however.
The S&P 500 was last higher on Thursday after a choppy day for U.S. stocks on Wednesday. The latest producer price index, which tracks wholesale inflation data, reflected a 0.2% rise in August on a monthly basis. The reading was in line with expectations.
There are no other major earnings or data releases in Europe on Thursday.
