Euro dives on the headline from BBG.
That’s very dovish. If you include January, it’s 24 months, so only multiply that 50 billion and it’s 1.2 trillion euros — much larger than the chatter.
Update: The report says the buying would start in March, according to one official, so that’s 22 months at 50 billion or 1.1 trillion euros of QE. Most of the talk was around 500 billion, so it’s nearly double what’s rumored.
Update 2: The WSJ is out with a similar headline. “ECB executive board’s QE proposal calls for roughly 50 billion euros ($58 billion) in bond buys a month, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The WSJ story has an important caveat and says the purchases ‘would last for a minimum of one year’, and that differs from BBG. Because it could mean buying of as little as 600 billion euros.
Update 3: With sources at two different news outlets it’s pretty clear that there’s something here. It’s disconcerting that the ECB can’t keep a secret but that’s nothing new. The market is all over the place as the euro rips back toward the session high at 1.1632. My guess is offshore money is flooding into stocks and Eurozone bonds but it’s bearish for the euro.
extreme euro volatility
Update 4: The euro is now through 1.1640 and stops were blown out up to 1.1680.
We have EUR/USD technical analysis here
Something else to keep in mind: If everything is leaking from the ECB, this should be a major concern
