By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bond yields rose and the euro dipped on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it would slow its stimulus program from April, while Wall Street struggled to extend the previous session's records.
European stocks rose after the ECB decision to reduce the long-running bond buying scheme to 60 billion euros a month, from 80 billion, from April to December 2017.
However, initial market reaction was tempered after ECB President Mario Draghi said it was not an outright winding-down of quantitative easing (QE), as policymakers want more evidence of a sustained pickup in inflation in Europe.
"This isn't going to last forever, but they are saying we are going to keep doing this until inflation comes back," said Larry Milstein, head of U.S. government and agency trading at R.W. Pressprich & Co in New York.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury note's yield was last up 5 basis points at 2.396 percent, retreating from a session high of 2.427 percent. The German 10-year Bund yield was up 8 basis points at 0.429 percent.
The S&P 500 benchmark index was flat, with the leading percentage losses from industrials, utilities and healthcare sectors.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 7.92 points, or 0.04 percent, to 19,541.7, the S&P 500 had lost 0.91 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,240.44 and the Nasdaq Composite had added 13.04 points, or 0.24 percent, to 5,406.80.
The euro was last down 1.2 percent at $1.0626 after surging to $1.0875 right after the bank's statement.
The dollar rose 0.8 percent against a basket of major currencies after the ECB news and ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting next week. A stronger greenback has been the consensus since Donald Trump's election as U.S. president, but some analysts have begun to question the rally's durability.
"We are still in our camp of pushing the euro lower into the new year," said Alessio de Longis, a portfolio manager and macro strategist with Oppenheimer Funds in New York. "If we are right on the dollar's strength next year then it should break parity."
After initially turning negative following the ECB announcement, European shares extended gains with the STOXX last up 1 percent, underpinned by the continued rally in banks, which rose 1.8 percent.
UPBEAT CHINA
The gains in European stocks came after MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan rose 1 percent, hitting their highest point in almost a month.
Risk appetite got a boost when China reported upbeat trade figures, with exports and imports both beating forecasts. Resource imports were strong, a major reason prices for bulk commodities have been rising.
A record peak for Samsung (KS:005930) helped lift South Korea almost 2 percent in its biggest gain in almost a month. Tokyo's Nikkei gained 1.5 percent to hit its highest point since January as it brushed off a disappointing downward revision to Japan's third-quarter growth.
Oil futures reversed course and rose after a three-day decline related to oversupply worries.
Brent futures were up 72 cents at $53.72 and U.S. crude inched up 73 cents to $50.50, as market watchers focused on a weekend meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers that may result in an agreement to cut crude output further.
Gold nudged 0.2 percent lower as the dollar rose