Traders and investors ignored gaps in the European Central Bank's new bond-buying plan Friday, propelling Spanish and Italian bonds to their strongest levels in months, crushing the cost of insuring debt against default, and pumping the euro higher.

The ECB's new bond-buying plan to help bring down borrowing costs for some of the region's fiscally-frail countries, announced Thursday, focuses on bonds falling due between one and three years. The program will be unlimited, and can be used as long as the government in question is under a program approved by the euro zone.