European Markets Rally as Germany Pledges Debt Package - Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com -- European stock markets surged after Germany's finance minister announced the government would announce an 'unlimited' credit facility to help companies struggling with short-term cash flow problems due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

Olaf Scholz told a press conference the facility would be administered by Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, a state-owned development bank that also played a large role in the government's stabilization programs 11 years ago.

The measure is the most radical announced so far by Berlin and reassured markets about Germany's willingness to relax its purse-strings as the European economy stares a potentially sharp recession in the face.  

Elsewhere, the European Commission confirmed that it was ready to relax the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, acknowledging that the Covid-19 outbreak represented an event outside the control of governments and therefore met the requirement for allowing exception spending.

By 8:10 AM ET (1210 GMT), the yield on the German 10-year benchmark bond, which collapsed to record lows earlier this month, rebounded to -0.59%, its highest level since the end of February. 

The German extended gains to be up 6.9%, while the Italian , which had crumbled on Thursday amid fears of a lack of support for the eurozone country worst hit by the coronavirus, rose by 14.7%.  Both indices were still short of Wednesday's closing levels, however.

The was at $1.1164, down 0.2% from Thursday's close.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmludmVzdGluZy5jb20vbmV3cy9lY29ub215L2V1cm9wZWFuLW1hcmtldHMtcmFsbHktYXMtZ2VybWFueS1wbGVkZ2VzLWRlYnQtcGFja2FnZS0yMTA5NTI40gEA?oc=5

2020-03-13 12:31:19Z
CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmludmVzdGluZy5jb20vbmV3cy9lY29ub215L2V1cm9wZWFuLW1hcmtldHMtcmFsbHktYXMtZ2VybWFueS1wbGVkZ2VzLWRlYnQtcGFja2FnZS0yMTA5NTI40gEA