Good morning from the Financial Times.

Today is Thursday, March 19th,

and this is your FT news briefing.

After a day of wild global market swings,

the ECB said it would launch a new bond- program to respond to the financial upheaval caused by the coronavirus.

Jillian Tet and Angela Rival will tell us what's behind some of those swings.

Plus bottlenecks and the health care supply chain have come into focus as COVID-19

spreads. The F.T.'s Hannah Cushler explains what some governments and factories are doing to produce

what's in short supply.

I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

The Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program.

That's what the European Central Bank is calling a new bond buying initiative

that it announced on Wednesday night.

Under the plan, the ECB will buy an additional 750 billion euros worth of sovereign bonds and corporate

debt this year.

It also relaxed rules to allow banks to raise money against more of their assets, all in an effort to boost financial markets that have been

thrown into chaos with the spread of the coronavirus.

Wednesday was yet another day of volatile trading.

Government bonds sold off while Sterling tumbled to its lowest

point since the 80s. Brent crude oil fell below $25 a barrel.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell more than 5%, and the Dow Jones industrial average erased

nearly all of its gains since Donald Trump's inauguration.

...