U.S. stocks open higher on ECB move

U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday, as Wall Street assessed the European Central Bank' s (ECB) decision to cut deposit interest rate by 10 bps.

The ECB on Thursday decided to lower the interest rate of deposit facility by 10 basis points to minus 0.3 percent.

"At today's meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the deposit facility will be decreased by 10 basis points to -0.30 percent, with effect from 9 December 2015," said a statement made by the ECB.

The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rate on the marginal lending facility will remain unchanged at 0.05 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.

ECB President Mario Draghi, speaking in Frankfurt at the press conference which follows its regular policy meeting, announced the central bank would extend its massive 60 billion euro (about 63.5 billion U.S. dollars) a month bond-buying scheme to at least March 2017.

On Wednesday, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen expressed her confidence in the U.S. economy, saying that she was "looking forward" to an interest rate hike.

Analysts believed that Yellen's speech could be seen as a sign that she is ready to raise interest rates later this month, preventing a surprise in markets or the economy.

U.S. stocks ended sharply lower Wednesday as Wall Street digested Yellen's comments.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.72 points, or 0.22 percent, to 17,769.40. The S&P 500 added 4.18 points, or 0.20 percent, to 2,083.69. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 16.67 points, or 0.33 percent, to 5,139.89. Endi