German bond yields and the euro rebounded on Thursday and European banking shares were whipsawed as doubts crept in about the effectiveness of the ECB’s decision to cut interest rates and pledge an indefinite supply of asset purchases.
The ECB cut its deposit rate by 10 basis points to a record low of -0.5%, promised that rates would stay low for longer and said it would restart bond purchases at a rate of 20 billion euros a month from Nov. 1.
It also eased the terms of its long-term loan facility to banks and said it would introduce a multi-tier deposit rate facility to help them.
The package of measures initially cheered investors whose expectations for aggressive easing had recently been dented by some ECB policymakers’ comments.
Italy’s 10-year bond yield fell to a record low at 0.76%, pushing the gap over German peers to 136 basis points — its tightest since May 2018 while German long-dated bonds saw yields tumble as much as 11 basis points on the day.
But over the course of Mario Draghi’s press conference, German borrowing costs crept higher while the euro rose off lows
