ECB Bond Buying Sends Stocks Higher

Declines in IBM offset some of the gains made by investors looking forward to the European Central Bank announcement Thursday, where the group is expected to purchase more bonds to stimulate the economy. The Euro Zone has had some economic troubles as of late and investors see the new stimulus as overdue. Asian stocks also moved higher later in the day after the US markets rose.

At 8:30 am EST the president of the ECB is rumored to be announcing a $53 billion monthly bond buying program, similar to what the US did for a number of years and recently ended. The purchase program has a lot of moving parts as there are individual members each with their own assets. The size of purchases is also not set in stone at this time.

Oil continued to move down but the main drag on the markets was IBM. The Blue Chip moved 3% lower on missed revenue numbers and a profit target for 2015 that is below what was previously expected. The stock affected both the Dow Industrial and the S&P 500.