Before the key interest rate decisions in the USA on Wednesday evening and in the euro area on Thursday, the mood on the German stock market has brightened again somewhat. At the end of trading, the Dax increased by 0.56 percent to 15,815.06 points. Most of the major stock exchanges in Europe also posted gains. The MDax of medium-sized stocks fell by 0.08 percent to 27,434.78 points.
Before the key interest rate decisions in the USA on Wednesday evening and in the euro area on Thursday, the mood on the German stock market has brightened again somewhat. At the end of trading, the Dax increased by 0.56 percent to 15,815.06 points. Most of the major stock exchanges in Europe also posted gains. The MDax of medium-sized stocks fell by 0.08 percent to 27,434.78 points.
The day before, the leading German index had climbed to 16,011 points, its highest level since January 2022. Ultimately, after a 15 percent price increase since the beginning of the year at the round mark, investors took profits with them.
What happens next is likely to depend primarily on the comments accompanying the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday evening. They have the greatest power to guide the exchanges. After all, after sharp hikes in interest rates in the USA since March 2022, experts are now only assuming a small step of 0.25 percentage points. After that, according to Craig Erlam, market analyst at broker Oanda, “a phase has been reached where any rate hike could have unwanted and unintended consequences.”
As such, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments and signals will be the focus of attention. If he emphasizes that risks in the banking sector are a reason not to raise interest rates further, the rally could continue, according to broker CMC Markets analyst Konstantin Oldenburger. “If, on the other hand, he makes it clear that inflation is still well above target and that the problems in the banking sector are not really a concern, the typical selling should start in May.”
The experts at Allianz Global Investors expect that the interest rate decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday will “debate the extent of the interest rate hike”. At the same time, an end to interest rate hikes in the euro area is far from in sight.
On the company side, Deutsche Post and the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG attracted interest in the Dax due to their quarterly reports. At the beginning of the year, a sluggish economy and the normalization of the freight business weighed on the logistics group. However, after the record year 2022, the results did not fall as significantly as analysts had expected. Post shares gained 1.1 percent. After a weaker course, the shares of Porsche AG closed 0.2 percent up. The sports car maker performed very solidly overall, but still slightly below expectations, wrote analyst Daniel Schwarz from the investment bank Stifel Europe.
Lufthansa delivered “mixed numbers”, as one dealer said. The outlook has been maintained, although the airline plans to lower the cost of kerosene. Shares fell 1.3 percent.
The shares of the software provider Teamviewer in particular came under pressure. In the end, the minus amounted to 10.2 percent. JPMorgan analyst Toby Ogg complained about the declining growth in the enterprise segment in the first quarter.
Elmos with plus 5.7 percent and Auto1 with plus 10.7 percent were the two best values in the SDax. Chip stock benefited from analyst commentary. Malte Schaumann from Warburg Research considers the slide in the share price over the past three weeks to be exaggerated. The online used car dealer Auto1 impressed with a lower operating quarterly loss than expected.
In Europe, the leading index of the euro zone, the EuroStoxx 50, rose by 0.36 percent to 4310.18 points, and gains were also recorded on the national stock exchanges in France and Great Britain. In the USA, the most important indices were almost unchanged at the European stock market close after their losses the previous day.
The euro strengthened and was trading at $1.1052 by late afternoon. The ECB set the reference rate at 1.1043 (Tuesday: 1.0965) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9055 (0.9119) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield fell from 2.38 percent on the previous day to 2.26 percent. The Rex pension index rose by 0.55 percent to 126.33 points. The Bund future gained 0.07 percent to 136.37 points.
Source: Stern
