Market overview: Stocks crash after Draghi fails to deliver

1630:Close Stocks received a thrashing on Thursday after the ECB’s Draghi failed to live up to market expectations, with some analysts having expected an increase in the size of the monthly amount dedicated to its repurchase programme from €60bn. Instead, he chose to keep it steady at that same amount. That drove an enormous rebound in the euro/dollar from its intraday lows. Debenhams and Spire led he rout on the second tier index on the back of negative broker comments. The FTSE 100 crashed 145.93 points to 6,275.00.

1500: US non-manufacturing PMI slips to 55.9 for November from a reading of 59.1 for the month before (consensus: 58.0). "On balance, the November non-manufacturing ISM was a touch below our expectations, but service sector activity remains solid," Barclays says.

1459: A report citing Bloomberg says RBS is contemplating selling Ulster Bank in next 24 months.

1458: "Spire is facing an uncertain future in the short term with NHS volumes decelerating and Monitor proposing to cut orthopaedic prices," Investec says. The broker has moved to a 'sell' with a new target price of 234p.

1348: ECB Draghi's Q&A has begun. Euro/dollar up 2.32% to 1.0834 after hitting an intra-day high at 1.0894.

1330: Initial US weekly unemployment claims rose by 9,000 to 269,000 last week (Barclays: 270,000).

1245: ECB leaves benchmark rate unchanged. Central bank says Draghi will announce further measures later in the day, signalling that changes in the QE programme will be forthcoming. The deposit rate was was cut to -0.30%, as expected. Euro/dollar has rebounded to trade higher by 0.42% to 1.0653. Bloomberg TV has reported that a misleading headline about the decision was apparently published initially. Euro/dollar hit an intra-day high of 1.06878 ahead of the announcement after plumbing an intra-day low of 1.05216.

1226: Barclays cut its forecasts for Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate ahead of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ two-meeting, which it expects to be a “non-event”. The bank said member countries are unlikely to agree on any production cuts, meaning oil prices will remain weaker. Barclays cut its Brent and WTI price forecasts by $3 to $60 and $56 per barrel, respectively.

1216: Unilever and Merlin Entertainments are the London-listed stocks which stand to lose the most from a rise in the euro should markets react unexpectedly after today's ECB announcement, one trader says.

1147: RBC Capital Markets has initiated coverage of Glencore at sector perform with a target price of 100p. "Glencore has multiple levers to pull. We expect shares to rally on asset sales/further operational improvements, with the 10 December update a potential catalyst," analysts Tyler Broda and Alexandra Slattery are saying.

1137: Debenhams is being dragged lower by comments out of Goldman Sachs pointing out the company's modest earnings growth outlook in comparison to European standards.

1135: "Market is already fully positioned for ECB over-delivery, especially given Draghi’s very good track record for positively surprising markets. Hence there is no real room for further real appreciation of USDEUR which is to translate into a pullback in equities with highly USD correlated sectors / names most at risk," one French trader is pointing out before Mario Draghi's press conference at 1330GMT and ECB announcement at 1245GMT.

11:34: Costa Coffee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread was the standout gainer on the FTSE 100 as Credit Suisse added the stock to its ‘Global and Europe Focus Lists’, lifting the price target to 5,800p from 5,500p. “Being ‘outperform’ rated on Whitbread for the last three years, we have frequently encountered those who feel they missed the stock. With broader value support than at most stages for 10 years, we see now as the time to revisit this quality growth story,” said CS.

1130: "The markets have already discounted a lot of dovishness from the ECB decision due this week, and a lot will be necessary for the ECB to keep the strong trend in European fixed income," Citi writes before today's ECB meeting. Looking out to tomorrow's US jobs report the broker says highlights the importance of the average hourly earnings data for householding spending and the Fed's reaction function.

1007: Euro/dollar is slipping 0.52% to 1.0553 on the back of a drop in German government two-year debt yields to -0.45%, which was in turn driving the spread over those on similarly-dated US Treasury notes to 138 basis points.

1000: Eurozone retail sales gained 0.1% month-on-month in October (consensus: 0.2%), after dropping by the same percentage in September.

0955: "Although today’s upside surprise is welcomed, caution is nonetheless required. The underlying categories provide a more mixed message and, nonetheless, there still exists notable declines on an October/November average relative to Q3 basis, notably in services’ new business and business expectations. Hence it does not change our cautious macro view on economic activity," Barclays's Andrzej Szczepaniak and Francois Cabau wrote in a research note sent to clients after the release of the survey results.

0930: The UK services PMI has come in at a 55.9 for November, higher than prior month’s reading of 54.9 (consensus: 55.0), led higher by an improvement in orders for new business.

0907: Iron ore 62% Fe spot (cfr Tianjin) was being quoted at $38.8 per tonne versus $39.9 per tonne on Wednesday, according to brokers. Copper was changing hands at $4,526 per tonne, down from $4,583.

0906: The Footsie has recovered following an initial dip lower on the heels of overnight losses on Wall Street, although Shanghai stocks managed a higher close. Miners are the weakest link in the chain following three days of losses in iron ore prices. Euro/dollar is on the back foot ahead of today’s European Central Bank policy meeting, with the question on everyone’s mind being whether Mario Draghi will be able to push the single currency to new year-to-date lows, or not. Markit’s Eurozone services PMI for November has printed below economists’ forecasts. Whitbread is higher thanks to positive comments out from Credit Suisse. FTSE 100 up 9.07 points to 6,430