Stocks were basically flat today and oil was down at the close (but has recovered since then). The big news today was the announcement by the European Central Bank that it would increase its monthly quantitative easing (basically money printing) by over 30%. It also announced the it would start charging banks to deposit funds with them (thereby indirectly creating negative interest rates). At first markets reacted positively and rallied, but then sold off once the news was digested. It turns out that the ECB telegraphed that it would not be making anymore increases in easing measures or "negative" rates. The markets do not like it when there is the possibility of cheap money finally going away. This might be the last salvo of easing that will come from Europe. In other words, they are done propping up the markets with low rates and money printing. Now that is big news. Maybe the central banks have realized that the time has come to let markets run their course without any more intervention? If that is the case, markets will inevitably sell off considerably since the only thing keeping them this high was low rates and money printing.
The only other major story was that there was another Republican debate tonight. I missed it of course. Do we really need this many debates? Besides the usual crime, mayhem, and disasters, that was all there was in the way of important stories today. Maybe there will be something interesting tomorrow?
What do you think?
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