Global Stock Market News - The European Central Bank

The dollar declined 0.3 percent to 120.77 yen JPY= after spiking as high as 121.26 on Wednesday from a session low of 120.02.

U.S. Dollar

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of six of its major peers, fell about 0.3 percent to 97.519, but remained near the 2-1/2-month peak of 97.818 scaled after the Fed's statement.

The euro reversed earlier losses, gaining about 0.2 percent to $1.0938 EUR= after skidding to a 2-1/2 month low of $1.0826 overnight.

The European Central Bank last week signaled its readiness to inject more stimulus to boost prices and the People's Bank of China followed with its sixth interest rate cut in less than a year and a reduction in the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.

Investors are speculating that the Bank of Japan could also expand its easing steps to keep economic recovery on track, but unexpectedly strong industrial output data on Thursday reduced the chance of the BOJ acting at its meeting on Friday.

Japan's Nikkei .N225, which swung between gains and losses, ended the day up 0.2 percent.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand kept interest rates steady on Thursday as expected but reiterated that some further easing seemed likely eventually.

The New Zealand dollar dropped about 0.5 percent to $0.6663.

U.S. crude oil futures shrugged off the stronger dollar and retained most of their gains after soaring more than 6 percent overnight as the government reported an inventory build-up, which triggered a short-covering rally after three days of losses.

U.S. crude CLc1 fell about 0.6 percent to $45.67 a barrel. Brent LCOc1 slipped 0.6 percent to $48.78.

Spot gold XAU= edged up about 0.5 percent in Asian trade to $1,161.71 an ounce, after skidding more than 1 percent in the previous session in the wake of the Fed's hawkish message.