Euro drops again after dovish ECB language

New York

THE euro dropped on Friday for a second consecutive day in a continued reaction to the European Central Bank's extending its bond-buying programme longer than many had anticipated, even as the bank cut the size of the monthly purchases.

The ECB said on Thursday it would reduce its monthly asset buys to 60 billion euros (S$90 billion) starting in April from 80 billion euros currently and extend purchases to December 2017 from March 2017. It reserved the right to increase the size of purchases again.