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U.S. stocks open higher as ECB leaves rates unchanged

Xinhua, January 19, 2017 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep its key interest rates unchanged.

At Thursday's meeting the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.00 percent, 0.25 percent and -0.40 percent respectively.

On the U.S. economic front, privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,226,000, beating market consensus, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

This is 11.3 percent above the revised November rate of 1,102,000 and is 5.7 percent above the December 2015 rate of 1,160,000.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Jan. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 234,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The 4-week moving average was 246,750, a decrease of 10,250 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since Nov. 3, 1973 when it was 244,000.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 15.95 points, or 0.08 percent, to 19,820.67. The S&P 500 edged up 1.59 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,273.48. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 6.57 points, or 0.12 percent, to 5,562.23.

U.S. stocks closed mixed Wednesday, as investors digested remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, amid a batch of economic data. Endi