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Europe close: Stocks boosted by more dovish than expected ECB
Stocks finished the session higher, boosted by weakness in the single currency after European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi sounded a more dovish note than expected.
In the background, investors were scrutinising all the headlines related to the recent increase in global trade frictions and each sides' response.
Against that backdrop, by the closing bell the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 1.05% or 3.91 points higher at 376.62, alongside a 1.28% or 66.27 point rise on the Cac-40 to 5,254.10 and a gain of 1.21% or 271.29 points for the FTSE Mibtel to 22,744.76.
The European Central Bank dropped its so-called 'easing bias' on Thursday, dropping the reference in its policy statement to the possibility of increasing the pace of bond purchases if necessary.
However, it continued to hold out the possibility of continuing to buy back bonds beyond September.
"We confirm that our net asset purchases, at the current monthly pace of 30 billion, are intended to run until the end of September 2018, or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim," Draghi reiterated in the introductory statement to his press conference.
Commenting on the ECB's decision, Olivier Rakau at Oxford Macroeconomics told clients: "However, that hawkish baby-step was accompanied by a barrage of dovishness from Mario Draghi that is meant to prevent financial markets from a premature tightening of monetary conditions.
"Yet, the ECB president's rhetoric was also a stark reminder that significant uncertainties remain regarding the inflation outlook that could yet derail or delay further normalisation steps. We expect the ECB to retain a very cautious and incremental approach to policy normalisation."
Significantly, and contrary to expectations on the day before, the US was no longer expected to formally announce its steel tariffs on Thursday.
In fact, overnight the US administration reportedly said it might exempt some countries from the new tariffs - based on national security considerations - even as Chinese officials hinted that they might hit back in response to any protectionist moves.
To take note of nonetheles, in recent days some observers had highlighted the US government's decision to invoke national security as the reason for its moves to shield its steel and aluminium manufacturers, because under WTO rules that could potentially offer policymakers a fair bit of discretionality or be a backdoor route for the US to exit the WTO.
The latest batch of economic data out of the euro area on Thursday was mixed.
On the upside, the French central bank's industrial sentiment index for February edged higher to a reading of 105.0 (consensus: 104.7).
Further East, Elstat reported that unemployment in Greece dipped from a 21.0% rate for November to 20.8% in December.
Meanwhile, in Germany, the Ministry of Finance reported that manufacturing orders shrank at a 3.9% month-on-month pace in January (consensus: -1.6%).
However, according to Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics, the drop was almost entirely due to negative so-called 'base effects' given how one year ago new orders had plummeted by 6.7%.
On the corporate front, Airbus was in focus after confirming during the previous session that it was to slash production rates on its A380 superjumbo and A400M military cargo aircraft, which might result in as many as 3,700 job losses across the organisation.