Stocks dropped after the European Central Bank slashed its growth and inflation forecasts for 2019 and lowered 2020 and 2021 as well. that raised concerns about the economic slowdown.
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The central bank also prepared new measures to stimulate the eurozone’s economy.
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Earlier, stock futures were boosted by the ECB leaving its interest rates unchanged, and delaying its first post-crisis rate hike to next year.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | %Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 25452.94 | -220.52 | -0.86% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 2753.48 | -17.97 | -0.65% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 7448.024651 | -57.90 | -0.77% |
In Europe, London’s FTSE slipped 0.4 percent, Germany’s DAX was off 0.3 percent and France’s CAC fell 0.2 percent.
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In Asia on Thursday, China’s shanghai Composite added 0.1 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9 percent, Japan’s Nikkei ended the day down 0.7 percent.
The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 223,000.
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This comes ahead of Friday’s big monthly jobs report. Economists expect 180,000 workers to have been added to payrolls in February, which would be down from the 304,000 added in January. The unemployment rate may have slipped to 3.9 percent from the uptick in the prior month to 4 percent.
