European equities traded higher on Thursday ahead of a European Central Bank decision as investors celebrated a decline in bond yields.
Up to six of the last eight sessions, the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP,
increased by 0.2%.
US 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y,
it fell below 1.5% for the first time in a week after US consumer prices had risen off in February, removing air from inflation fears that recently worried traders. ECB President Christine Lagarde should further explain the central bank’s concern that rising bond yields could interfere with monetary policy, at a news conference following the policy decision.
“While we do not expect the central bank to announce new measures, ECB President Christine Lagarde will adopt an impoverished tone, emphasizing the flexibility built into its QE pandemic [quantitative easing] program to frontally load asset purchases as needed, ”said economists at the TS Lombard research service.
US ES00 stock futures,
were stronger, in particular the highly technological Nasdaq-100 NQ00,
which closed lower on Wednesday.
In Europe, technology stocks, including ASML microchip equipment manufacturer ASML,
Prosus PRX technology investor,
and microchip maker Infineon Technologies IFX,
advanced.
Banks including HSBC HSBA,
and Barclays BARC,
they traded lower as yields fell.
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Rolls-Royce RR Engine Manufacturer,
rose 1%. The troubled company, which reported an underlying loss of £ 4bn in 2020, says it expects to have a positive free cash flow during the second half of the year.