Stocks Ended Little Changed as Draghi Action Disappointed

U.S. stocks ended little changed on Thursday after the European Central Bank reduced interest rates but ECB chief Mario Draghi disappointed investors that expected multiple rate cuts by saying more were unlikely. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.23 points, or 0.03%, to 16,995.13. The S&P 500 gained 0.31 point, or 0.02%, to 1,989.57. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 12.22 points, or 0.26%, to 4,662.16.

Draghi suggested that years of interest rate cuts may finally be at an end. “Rates will stay low, very low, for a long period of time and well past the horizon of our purchases,” Draghi said, referring to the bank’s asset purchase program, due to end in March 2017. But “from today’s perspective and taking into account the support of our measures to growth and inflation, we don’t anticipate that it will be necessary to reduce rates further.”

Oil prices settled lower on Thursday, retreating from their highest levels of the year reached a day earlier. April West Texas Intermediate crude shed 45 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $37.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange declined $1.02, or 2.5%, to $40.05 a barrel.

Yahoo Inc.’s appointment of two new board members Thursday signals the Internet company is girding to battle activist investors over its future.

A federal jury ruled on Thursday that Cabot Oil & Gas Co must pay more than $4.2 million in damages to two families in northeastern Pennsylvania who said the company’s fracking operations contaminated their ground water.