While you were sleeping: UPDATED Draghi delivers but US stocks are unmoved

Stocks on Wall Street shrugged off fresh stimulus measures from the European Central Bank.

Analysts and investors said the moves highlighted diminished faith in the ability of central banks ​to stoke growth and inflation amid interest rates that are already negative in Europe and Japan.

While US stocks initially rose and the euro fell after the ECB’s moves, they swapped direction during ECB President Mario Draghi’s news conference.

Punished by sliding equity markets after Mr Draghi was seen to have under-delivered on fresh stimulus measures in December, the same happened again after the ECB announced a larger-than-expected package of measures including cutting its main lending rates and boosting its bond purchase programme by a third to €80 billion  a month.

Mr Draghi has "brought out the bazooka out this time but, after the initial reaction, the perception that central banks are beginning to panic and are running out of options crept back in," Patrick Spencer, equities vice chairman at Robert W Baird & Co in London, told Bloomberg.

"Maybe there's less scope on the interest rates side but there are more tools that can be used."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a 1.7% slide from the previous close. Earlier in the day it had risen as much as 2.5%, according to Bloomberg.

"The governing council expects the key ECB interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the horizon of our net asset purchases," Draghi told reporters in Frankfurt after the meeting. However, he also warned the bank doesn't "anticipate it will be necessary to reduce rates further."

France's CAC 40 Index gave up 1.7%, the UK's FTSE 100 Index declined 1.8%, while Germany's DAX Index sank 2.3%.

'End of the line' for negative rates
"'Whatever it took' is now taken," Bill Gross, manager of the Janus Capital Global Unstrained Bond Fund, wrote in a Twitter message, referring to Draghi's 2012 speech in which he promised to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro.

Mr Gross added that it was the "end of the line for more negative interest rates."

"Global monetary policy door [is] closing fast-developed market yields have bottomed," Mr Gross noted.

At the Wall Street close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell less than 0.1% to 16,995.13, while the Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.3% to 4662.16.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose less than 0.1% to 1989.57.

Oil declined amid concern an agreement about a freeze in output between major oil producers might prove harder than expected to achieve.

A meeting between oil producers to discuss a global pact on freezing production is unlikely to take place in Russia on March 20, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, who noted that Opec member Iran had yet to say whether it would participate in such a deal.

(BusinessDesk)