ING: "No Big Bazooka"

ING's initial reaction to the ECB decision and Lagarde press conference:

"was rather unexciting with a well-balanced and well-considered extension of the well-known policy instruments. No big new bazooka...All measures are now timed and tied to the assumption that the vaccine will bring herd immunity in all eurozone countries by the end of 2021. Tweaking the duration of all measures is still possible, a real stepping up of the measures is really not. For the time being, the ECB is leaving the big bazookas to governments and concentrating on real central bank engineering."

On the ECB monitoring the exchange rate "very carefully going forward" - ING notes this stands in contrast with the unclear language at the Sept meeting, and "very little more Lagarde could have said on this one."