Wall St eases despite rate fuelled gains for Europe
Wall Street closed lower overnight, with a late turnaround erasing gains earlier in the session in response to the European Central Bank's unexpected decision to cut the official eurozone interest rate to a fresh record low.
The Dow Jones fell less than 0.1 per cent to 17,070, while the broader S&P 500 hit an all-time high early in the day before closing down nearly 0.2 per cent to 1,998.
The market's fall was also at odds with economic data, with a private measure indicating the US services sector expanded in nine years in August.
The Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacturing Index rose 0.9 percentage points to 59.6 in the August data.
Across the Atlantic, the FTSE 100 in London was flat, rising just 4 points to 6,878, but the other indices rose strongly for a second straight session after the surprise eurozone interest rate cut by 10 basis points to 0.05 per cent.
European Central Bank president Mario Draghi says the bank did consider quantitative easing, the policy heavily used by the US Federal Reserve and one of the few options remaining for the ECB to try to stimulate growth.
"Yes, it was discussed. QE was discussed," he confirmed.
"Some of our governing council members were in favour of doing more that just presented and some were in favour of doing less. So our proposal strikes a mid-road."
The German DAX rose 1 per cent while the Euro Stoxx index gained 1.8 per cent.
Futures trade suggested a lacklustre start for the Australian share market opens: the ASX SPI 200 was steady at 5,633 at 8:30am (AEST).
On the commodity markets West Texas crude oil had slipped to US$94.46.
Tapis crude oil in Singapore was a little stronger at US$104.70.
Spot gold was trading at US$1,261, while the benchmark Chinese iron ore price had fallen further to US$84.30 a tonne.
The Australian dollar was higher against all the major currencies. It was buying 93.5 US cents, 72.2 euro cents, 57.2 British pence and 98.4 Japanese yen.
