By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The euro rose on Thursday as the European Central Bank rolled out yet more stimulus measures on Thursday to lift the currency bloc out of a double-dip recession, while world equity indexes slipped following an increase in weekly U.S. jobless claims.
Energy shares were sharply higher, however, with oil prices climbing nearly 3% and Brent rising above $50 a barrel for the first time since early March, fueled by hopes of a faster demand recovery.
The ECB expanded its debt purchase scheme and agreed to provide banks with even more ultra-cheap liquidity as long as they keep passing the cash onto companies. It said it is monitoring the euro’s exchange rate with regard to its possible implications for the medium-term inflation outlook.
Sterling weakened as investors became more cautious about the risk of a no-deal Brexit.
The euro was up 0.43% to $1.2133, while sterling was last trading at $1.3292, down 0.78% on the day.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 edged lower as the jump in jobless claims pointed to a stalling labor market recovery, though focus remained on stimulus talks.
The three major stock indexes got a boost earlier after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said talks between Republican and Democratic senators on COVID-19 relief were making “a lot of progress” with more discussions expected in the day.
“Market is very fixated in anticipation that some type of deal can be made fairly soon,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in North Carolina.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 87.06 points, or 0.29%, to 29,981.75, the S&P 500 lost 8.66 points, or 0.24%, to 3,664.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 36.78 points, or 0.3%, to 12,375.73.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.44% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.05%.
In the bond market, longer-dated Treasury yields were broadly lower.
Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 9/32 in price to yield 0.9113%, from 0.941% late on Wednesday.
Brent crude rose $1.39, or 2.8%, to settle at $50.25 a barrel, gaining for a third day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $1.26, or 2.8%, to settle at $46.78.
Spot gold prices were slightly lower.
($1 = 0.8255 euros)
(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; additional reporting by Karen Brettell in New York, Shriya Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru and Marc Jones in London; Editing by Dan Grebler and Nick Zieminski)
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