By Jamie McGeever
LONDON (Reuters) - A signal from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi that further policy easing is coming next month pushed the euro and government bond yields lower on Thursday but failed to lift stocks, which buckled under the weight of gloomy corporate news.
The gap between 5-year U.S. and euro zone bond yields hit its highest since 1999, while the dollar's rebound helped push crude oil to lows not seen since late August and copper to a six-year low.
In an address to the European Parliament, Draghi said inflation dynamics had somewhat weakened and that a "sustained normalisation" of inflation could take longer to achieve than thought.
"Draghi's comments on risks to growth and inflation suggest even more clearly than the last press conference that the ECB will likely act in December," said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London.
"Although the debate at the ECB seems to be far from over, the fact that Draghi made these comments in a high-profile setting suggest that he is confident that the majority of the ECB council will support him."
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Earlier on Thursday, ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure said the debate on more stimulus next month was still open. But Draghi's testimony trumped that and fixed income and currency markets reacted.
German 10-year yields fell 1 basis point to 0.60 percent, having opened the day higher. All other euro zone yields were down on the day.
Expectations for ECB easing are in sharp contrast to those for U.S. monetary policy. Most investors are betting that last Friday's stellar U.S. employment report has set the seal on the Federal Reserve raising rates at its meeting next month.
Illustrating that divergence, the gap between U.S. and German five-year yields rose to 181 basis points, the highest since 1999.
The euro fell as low as $1.0691 and hit a three-month low against sterling at 70.41 pence. At 1230 GMT the single currency was still down on the day but had recovered a good chunk of these losses, trading at $1.0715 and 70.55 pence.
The dollar index, which tracks the currency against a basket of six major peers, edged up 0.1 percent to 99.15, moving back towards a seven-month peak of 99.504 scaled on Tuesday.
COMMODITIES ROUT
In equities, the pan-European FTSEuroFirst 300 was down 0.5 percent at 1,487 points, having risen as much as 0.5 percent on Draghi's comments.
Germany's DAX was down 0.4 percent, France's CAC 40 down 0.8 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 down 0.5 percent.
The positive impact from Draghi's comments was fleeting, and investors quickly focused on the negative implications for equities.
"It depends on whether markets focus on the stimulus angle or see the move as a sign that the economic situation is worse than feared. The fact that the ECB seems to be gravitating towards a deposit rate cut also is bad news for banks and insurers," Action Economics wrote in a note to clients.
Euro zone financials were among the biggest losers, down 1 percent, but the talk of the stock market was British engine-maker Rolls-Royce, which issued its fourth profit warning in just over a year.
Its shares plunged more than 20 percent.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat open on Wall Street.
Earlier in Asia, stocks shrugged off the overnight fall on Wall Street as oil bounced back from its lowest in over two months and a bumper Australian employment report sent out encouraging signals on the region's economy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.9 percent, while Japan's Nikkei ended flat on the day.
The biggest move across major Asian markets was the Australian dollar, which jumped more than 1 percent to $0.7150 after figures showed that the country's economy created 58,600 jobs last month.
U.S. crude futures were lower in Europe, sliding again after Wednesday's 3 percent slide on worries about higher crude inventories.
They were last down 1 percent at $42.52 a barrel and Brent crude was down 0.7 percent at $45.46, both the lowest since August 27.
Copper futures in London hit a 6-year low of $4,851 a tonne and platinum hit its lowest since late 2008 at $771.70 an ounce.
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; editing by John Stonestreet; To read Reuters Global Investing Blog click on https://bsmedia.business-standard.comblogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting; for the MacroScope Blog click on http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope; for Hedge Fund Blog Hub click on http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub)