Overnight: The European Central Bank surprised markets with fresh measures to boost the eurozone's flagging economy and ward off the risks posed by Russian...

Overnight: The European Central Bank surprised markets with fresh measures to boost the eurozone's flagging economy and ward off the risks posed by Russian aggression in Ukraine. Policymakers ramped up efforts to protect the single currency region's weak recovery and combat the threat of deflation by announcing a 10 basis-point cut in its main interest rate, taking it to a new all-time low of 0.05%. The ECB cut the deposit rate, already in negative territory, from -0.1% to -0.2%. This makes it even more expensive for banks to park cash with the ECB, which is hoping they will now be more willing to lend to businesses and consumers. The ECB has also agreed to start buying asset-backed securities and covered bonds from October, but stopped short of embarking on full-scale quantitative easing (QE) which would potentially involve the bank purchasing government debt. Full article from The Guardian: (VIEW LINK)