Fed Watching ECB Just as Closely as Markets

The Federal Reserve, which meets next week, will be watching Thursday’s European Central Bank (ECB) meeting just as closely as financial markets as it mulls whether or not to deliver a monetary boost to a fragile U.S. economy.

ECB President Mario Draghi bought calm to volatile markets in late July when he pledged to take action to end a debt crisis in the euro zone. Now, with a long-summer break over, it is crunch time for the central bank to deliver and outline just how it plans to alleviate pressure on troubled euro zone member states that are struggling with high borrowing costs.

What the ECB says on Thursday is important to the Fed because any disappointing news could trigger a fresh bout of market volatility and uncertainty. That in turn could persuade the Fed to deliver monetary easing via quantitative easing at its September 12-13 meeting, especially if any bad news from Europe is followed by weak U.S. jobs data, says Jim Awad, Managing Director at Zephyr Management in New York.

via CNBC

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