The European Central Bank left all its key interest rates unchanged.
Also, the European Central Bank kept its quantitative-easing program unchanged as policy makers gauge whether a recent jump in inflation will endure.
The Governing Council reaffirmed its decision that monthly asset purchases will be reduced to 60 billion euros ($63 billion) from April, compared with 80 billion euros currently.
Wall Street stock markets are expected to open on a negative trend today towards the speech of the Fed Chairman, Janet Yellen, where investors hope to get a final confirmation that the Fed will raise the interest rates at its meeting in less than two weeks.
The Asian markets are trading with gains after Wall Street stock markets last night rose to a record against the background of Janet Yellen’s speech in the US Senate. The Federal Reserve Chairman said that if the trend of improvement in the US economy would be appropriate, once again she will raise the interest rates.
Reserve Bank of New Zealand left the interest rates unchanged at 1.75%.
India’s central bank also chose to leave interest rates unchanged, and it has remained stable at 6.25%.
Australia’s central bank decided today to keep the interest rates at a record low of 1.5%.
The bank’s decision was expected in light of the economic downturn and amid concerns the country’s real estate bubble burst led to a rise in prices in many cities.
Macro-economic Data disappointing in China sent the Shanghai stock exchange to a decline of 0.4%.
PMI of manufacturing sector in January missed the economists’ estimates and recorded a reading of 51 index points only, versus expectations of 51.8 points.
China’s central bank provided a surprise, he raised the short-term interest rates by 0.1% to a level of 2.35%.
The trading on Wall Street stock exchanges closed yesterday with a positive trend after the Fed kept the US interest rates unchanged and gave a positive assessment to the American economy.
The European stock markets trading is conducted today (Thursday) with a tendency towards price stability in most exchanges.
All this towards the interest rate and monetary policy in the Euro zone at noon.
Investors around the world are waiting anxiously towards the publication of the US employment report and its potential impact on the interest rate.
The early expectations are of 178 thousand additional jobs.
The Bank of Japan kept the interest rates negative at minus 0.1% and the target government bond yields to 10 years at 0%.
The bank also will continue to buy government bonds at an annual rate of 80 trillion yen.
The central bank interest rate announcement stated that the Japanese economy continues to recover at a moderate pace but raised economic forecasts regarding exports and industrial output.
365 Stock market news 