Bank of England increased its quantitative easing program by 50 billion pounds

Alex Tarrant details the key new overninght, including news that the European Central Bank cut its official rate by 25 basis points to 1.00%. It also announced it would purchase 60 billion Euros worth of covered bonds, effectively quantitative easing. The Bank of England increased its quantitative easing program by 50 billion pounds to 125 billion pounds, and kept its benchmark rate at 0.5%. The Dow was down 1.3% in late trade. There was news from the US that consumer credit contracted by US$11.1 billion in March, 3 times more than expected, as jobless claims grew. The NZ$ nearly hit 60 USc overnight, before falling back to around 59 USc.