Focus of the yesterday's session was on ECB interest rate decision and the following press conference. Even while the European Central Bank made no changes to either policy or its statement on Thursday, Mario Draghi, president of the euro zone monetary authority, affirmed that a decision on whether to reduce, or taper, asset purchases will be decided in autumn, most likely in October.The ECB kept monetary policy on hold on Thursday with the main refinancing rate left unchanged at 0%, the rate on bank overnight deposits kept at -0.40%, while the rate on the marginal lending facility, or emergency overnight borrowing rate for banks, stayed at 0.25%.
In the US session Unemployment Claims data was released. U.S. jobless claims surged last week by the most since November 2012 as tens of thousands of Texans displaced by Hurricane Harvey filed applications to collect benefits, according to Labor Department figures Thursday. Initial jobless claims increased by 62k to seasonally adjusted 298,000. Applications filed in Texas surged by an unadjusted 51,637 from the previous week to 63,742. Continuing claims in U.S. fell by 5k to 1.94m in week ended Aug. 26.
There will be no major data releases both from Eurozone and USA tomorrow, so we expect a bit steadier session.
