FOREX-Euro dives as ECB pulls out stops in growth push

Published 2016-03-10, 08:01 a/m
© Reuters.  FOREX-Euro dives as ECB pulls out stops in growth push
EUR/USD
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* ECB cuts rates, announces corporate bond buys
* Measures top what market had priced in for meeting
* Eyes on Draghi news conference for more detail
* Euro down more than 1 percent on day at $1.0874

By Patrick Graham
LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - The euro sank a full cent
against the dollar on Thursday after the European Central Bank
unveiled a raft of measures, many of them not expected by
markets, to stimulate growth and inflation in the euro zone.
The ECB cut its marginal and refinancing rates as well as
making a widely expected 10 basis point cut in deposit rates. It
also expanded its programme of bond-buying to include corporate
debt.
The euro, already down against the dollar on the day, sank
to a one-week low of $1.0863 per dollar from around $1.0970
before the announcement EUR= . It also fell by more than half a
percent against the Swiss franc, yen and sterling. EURCHF=
EURJPY= EURGBP=
Expectations had been high that ECB policymakers would
deliver a telling blow in the central bank's campaign to get
inflation rising again and drag the euro zone economy out of the
mire after eight years of weak growth.
But senior currency sales managers at a handful of major
banks had said that speculators were probably only about a third
as much engaged against the euro as they were before a December
decision that underwhelmed and left many of their investments
underwater.
"This was a much bigger bazooka than the market was
expecting and shows the ECB trying to get ahead of the
confidence curve after learning its lesson in December," said
John Hardy, head of currency strategy at Saxo Bank.
"The euro is under pressure."

(Editing by Nigel Stephenson)

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