European markets traded higher Thursday morning after the European Central Bank launching a 750 billion euro ($820 billion) bond-buying program designed to help the region's economy through the coronavirus outbreak. After a mixed start, the pan-European Stoxx 600 advanced 1.1% in early trade, with autos adding 2.4% to lead gains while travel and leisure stocks continued to suffer from cancellations and shutdowns, falling 2.3%. On Wednesday, the European Central Bank announced a new "Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme" that will use €750 billion to purchase securities to help support the European economy. "The ECB will ensure that all sectors of the economy can benefit from supportive financing conditions that enable them to absorb this shock," the central bank said in a release. "This applies equally to families, firms, banks and governments. The Governing Council will do everything necessary within its mandate." So far, markets have not been impressed with government pledges to tackle the virus. Global stocks fell Wednesday despite Western governments promising to unleash billions of dollars to help businesses and citizens get through the coronavirus pandemic. So far, there are over 218,000 confirmed cases of the virus worldwide and at least 8,800 lives have been taken by the disease, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. U.S. futures contracts tied to the major U.S. stock indexes fell early Thursday morning, signaling another day of declines for Wall Street.
