European Stocks Higher After ECB

2025-12-18 13:59 By Joana Taborda 1 min. read

The STOXX 50 added 0.5% and the STOXX 600 gained more than 1% on Thursday, as investors digested the ECB’s monetary policy decision.

The central bank left interest rates on hold as expected and reiterated its guidance on the future rate path unchanged, repeating its data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach.

Policymakers also revised their growth and inflation projections for 2026 but the new projections provide little arguments for changing rates.

During the regular press conference, President Lagarde said that inflation has been in a “narrow range” and that core inflation also hasn’t changed much and remain in line with the 2% target.

Meanwhile, central banks in Norway and Sweden left interest rates unchanged as expected while the BoE lowered borrowing costs by 25bps as anticipated.

ASML Holding gained 2.1%, following a sharp decline in the previous session.

Inditex also added more than 2%.

In contrast, Novo Nordisk declined by over 1%.



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