Investing.com – As markets expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) made no changes to its record-low interest rates and announced no new measures on Thursday in what was its first policy decision since the U.K. decided to leave the European Union.
The ECB left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record-low 0.0%, in line with forecasts.
The central bank also held its deposit facility rate steady at -0.4% and its marginal lending rate remained at 0.25%.
Additionally, the ECB also kept the size of its monthly quantitative easing program at approximately €80 billion.
After the decision, traders looked ahead to ECB president Mario Draghi’s press conference at 13:30GMT, or 8:30AM ET.
Market participants will pay close attention to any hints of action to be taken at the December meeting when the ECB presents its updated economic forecasts.
Analysts widely expect Draghi to emphasize the continued need for monetary stimulus, reinforcing expectations for an extension of the ECB's asset buys beyond its scheduled end in March 2017.
After the announcement and ahead of Draghi, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0983 from around 1.0984 ahead of the announcement, while EUR/GBP was at 0.8958 from 0.8954 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were mixed. The benchmark Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.21%, France's CAC 40 rose 0.13%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.13%, while London’s FTSE 100 lost 0.08%.