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| - European and US stock markets pushed higher on Thursday after the ECB accelerated its stimulus bond buying and the jobs market in the United States improved. The ECB said after its latest monetary policy meeting that it will ramp up the pace of its pandemic emergency bond buys, in a clear bid to soothe market jitters about a rise in government borrowing costs and inflation. While the ECB did not increase the overall amount of bond purchases planned, the announcement came as investor nervousness has already pushed up yields and despite the central bank acknowledging that inflation will likely run higher than expected in the short term. "The central bank doesn't want the eurozone's rising borrowing costs to falter the economic recovery from the pandemic," noted market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at ThinkMarkets. "As soon as the statement was released, bonds rallied, causing yields to drop and stocks to hit new highs. The euro eased off its earlier highs, but it hadn't moved down too significantly," he added. Frankfurt's DAX hit a fresh record high, while Paris's CAC 40 also set a new one-year high. However Razaqzada warned that stepping up bond purchases -- the favoured tool of central banks to stimulate the economy since the global financial crisis of 2007-08 -- could push inflation even higher and harm investors later. Analyst Edward Moya at Onada noted that the ECB made no major changes to the size and timing of the total programme. "That signals they are confident the economy will be back to normal by next March," he said. Meanwhile, in the United States, first time jobless claims decreased by 42,000 last week to 712,000, both beating expectations and coming in at the lowest since November. "The key takeaway from the initial jobless claims data is that initial claims are still high, but at least they are moving in a direction that suggests the economy is finding its growth stride again," said market analyst Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com. "An economy hitting its growth stride -- and then some -- is exactly what has fired up the cyclical and value plays, which led yesterday's gains," he added. Wall Street was pushing higher in late morning trade, with the Dow setting a new intra-day high, after closing at a record high Wednesday following congressional approval of the $1.9 trillion pandemic stimulus programme. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which was hit hard in the past two weeks over concerns about inflation the prospect of a interest rates rising, bounced higher, rising 2.4 percent. Oil prices rose after OPEC lowered its demand forecast for the first half of the year, but modestly rose the forecast for the year overall. "Energy market traders are still expecting a tight oil market as OPEC+ will only raise output once the recovery in oil demand is clear," said Oanda's Moya. Crude prices have returned to pre-pandemic levels as OPEC and its allies have extended production cuts despite indications that economies across the world are set to back towards normal as vaccination campaigns gather steam. New York - Dow: UP 1.0 percent at 32,618.13 points EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.7 percent at 3,846.10 London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 6,736.96 (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.2 at 14,569.39 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.7 percent at 6,033.76 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent at 29,211.64 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 1.7 percent at 29,385.61 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 2.4 percent at 3,436.83 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1963 from $1.1932 at 2220 GMT Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3971 from $1.3928 Euro/pound: UP at 85.65 pence from 85.60 pence Dollar/yen: UP at 108.47 yen from 108.38 yen Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.9 percent at $69.22 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.8 percent at $65.22 per barrel burs-rl/lth
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