As expected, the European Central Bank left its benchmark lending rate unchanged at 1.0 percent on Thursday. While this came as no surprise, US stock index futures fell, as investors were looking for some sign of action on the part of the ECB to bolster the rapidly declining euro.
Ongoing protests in Greece have pushed global markets into negative territory for the past several days. This morning’s announcement from Moody’s indicating that debt contagion was likely to spread to other countries in the EU, suggests no immediate signs of this trend reversing.