By Scott Kanowsky
Investing.com -- The euro held on to gains on Thursday after briefly dipping into negative territory, as investors weighed a decision by the European Central Bank to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade.
As of 09:51 EST (1351 GMT), the common currency was higher against the dollar by 0.19% to $1.0196. The euro had initially surged to as much as $1.0277 and dropped to as low as $1.0154.
The ECB said it will increase the rate on its deposit facility, which provides the effective floor to euro money market rates, by 50 basis points to 0%, ending a nine-year experiment with negative official interest rates. The refinancing rate and the marginal lending rate will also rise by 50 basis points respectively to 0.5% and 0.75%.
The bank had said at its last meeting that it intended to raise the deposit rate by 25 basis points in July, with a larger hike possible in September depending on the progress of inflation. The annual rate of inflation in the Eurozone rose by more than expected to 8.6% in June, according to data released earlier this week by Eurostat, prompting an abrupt recalculation by the central bank.
Policymakers flagged that further rate rises "will be appropriate," with borrowing costs set to be decided on a "meeting-by-meeting approach." Speaking in a press conference, Lagarde clarified that the September guidance was "no longer applicable."
Meanwhile, a new financial tool was approved to prevent a blowout in yields on sovereign debt between stronger northern European economies and its weaker counterparts in the south of the continent. But the so-called 'Transmission Protection Instrument' is unlikely to stop long-term market rates rising in absolute terms even as it raises official ones.
In a statement, the ECB said the tool will allow it and other national central banks to make secondary market purchases of securities issued by countries in the currency bloc. To participate in the scheme, member states will need to comply with the EU's fiscal rules, avoid severe macroeconomic imbalances, show fiscal sustainability, and have "sound and sustainable" policies.
The yield on the 10-year Italian bond, which is already under pressure from recent political turmoil in the country, was higher by 0.21 percentage points to 3.67% following the announcement. Its German equivalent, which is often judged as a proxy for Eurozone risk, also fell by 0.02 percentage points to 1.24%. Yields tend to move inversely to prices.
Elsewhere, the pan-European STOXX 600 was holding steady at 422.54 following a bout of roller-coaster trading.