Stocks ended the week higher for a fourth week in a row, as did the price of oil, after the ECB came through with easing plans that were met with a positive reaction after a one-day delay.

MACRO NEWS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims fell to 259,000 in the week ended March 5, versus expectations for 275,000 first-time claims. In China, the consumer price index rose 2.3% in February from a year earlier, versus expectations for them to be up 1.8%. The producer price index fell 4.9%, matching the consensus forecast. Import prices slid 0.3% in February, which was not as weak as the 0.7% decline that was forecast. Export prices were down 0.4% last month, which was also a bit better than the 0.5% decline that was expected…

West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery rose 1.7% to settle at $38.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday after the International Energy Agency said it now believes non-OPEC output will fall by 750,000 barrels per day in 2016, which is above its prior call for a 600,000 bpd reduction. Friday’s advance gave oil futures a 7.2% gain for the week, marking the commodity’s fourth weekly gain in a row…

In remarks made Monday, dovish Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard argued for policy patience and warned of downside risks amid a “concerning” drop in inflation expectations, while vice chairman Stanley Fischer spoke of the first stirrings of rising inflation and noted that the Fed would prefer to avoid negative rates…

In Europe, the ECB cut the interest rate on the main refinancing operations of the Eurosystem by 5 basis points to 0.00%, lowered the rate on its deposit facility by 10 basis points to -0.40%, said it will expand monthly purchases under its asset purchase program to EUR 80B starting in April and announced that investment grade euro-denominated corporate bonds will now be eligible for regular purchases. The ECB also said a new series of four targeted longer-term refinancing operations will be launched, starting in June. Though, in a press conference following the announcement, ECB President Mario Draghi signaled that the central bank does not anticipate cutting interest rates further. In other central bank news, the Bank of Canada kept its key interest rates unchanged, as expected. However, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand surprised the market by unexpectedly cutting its main interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low 2.25%…