market report
Status: 04/17/2023 07:45 a.m
After the new annual high in the DAX, investors first press the pause button at the start of the new stock market week. But the chances of further price gains are good.
At the start of the new stock exchange week, the DAX should not make any big jumps. The broker IG assesses the 40 German standard values at the hour hardly changed at 15,811 points. On Friday, the German stock market barometer marked a new high for the year at 15,841 points.
There is not much missing from the all-time high in the DAX
Experts give the DAX good chances for further price gains. From a technical perspective, the uptrend is intact; The leading German index is only a few percent short of its previous record of 16,290 points from November 2021. The old record high should now have a strong attraction for many investors.
US monetary policy in the focus of investors
At the same time, investors continue to watch the monetary policy of the major central banks and in particular the interest rate decision by the US Federal Reserve at the beginning of May with eagle eyes. Christopher Waller, director of the US Federal Reserve, only announced further interest rate hikes on Friday. “As financial conditions have not tightened significantly, the labor market remains strong and inflation is well above target, monetary policy needs to be tightened further,” Waller said.
On the financial markets, expectations had recently grown that the US Federal Reserve would only raise the key interest rate again by 0.25 percent in May and then take a break.
Experts have hopes for earnings season
Deutsche Bank’s investment strategists are expecting positive surprises from the reporting season that is just beginning for the first quarter. The analysts at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) are also confident. The first key data were good and the bar from the previous year was low, especially in the United States – “this could support the markets for a while in April, which is usually friendly”.
Several large US banks had already come up with good news for investors before the weekend: JPMorgan, for example, raised its profit target for the current year.
Dow and Nasdaq under pressure
Negative specifications for DAX trading come from the US stock exchanges. Weak retail sales in the US pushed Wall Street into the red on Friday despite strong balance sheets from major US banks. The Dow Jones lost 0.4 percent to 33,886 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was also down 0.4 percent to 12,123 and the broader S&P 500 was down 0.2 percent to 4138.
US retail sales in March fell 1.0 percent from the previous month. “These numbers suggest that the economy could actually be slowing to the point where we have to worry about recession rather than inflation,” said Robert Pavlik, portfolio manager at money manager Dakota Wealth.
Asian stock exchanges hardly changed
The stock exchanges in Asia hardly changed in the morning, many investors are apparently eagerly awaiting the economic figures from China announced for tomorrow. The Nikkei index, which comprises 225 stocks, was almost unchanged at 28,502 points shortly before the close of trading in Tokyo. The index of the most important companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen is also treading water.
Gold a little less in demand at the start of the week
There was also little movement on the foreign exchange market. The euro is listed in Asian foreign exchange trading little changed at 1.0983 dollars. The troy ounce of gold rose 0.1 percent to 2004 dollars. The yellow precious metal had recently benefited greatly from the lower US interest rate expectations and was targeting its record high of 2075 dollars from the corona year 2020 again.
Oil prices stagnate at the beginning of the week
Oil prices barely budged in early trade. In the morning, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in June cost 86.39 US dollars. A barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was traded at $82.58.
In the past few weeks, oil prices have recovered significantly from their slump in mid-March. The decisive factor for the recovery is above all a surprising and significant cut in production by some countries from the OPEC+ oil alliance. The International Energy Agency (IEA) therefore expects oil prices to continue to rise.
VW with e-car batteries and ID.7 in focus
In the DAX, VW draws attention to itself in the morning. According to the Indonesian investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, the car company wants to build a production facility for electric car batteries in Indonesia in cooperation with Ford and the mining company Vale, among others. In the further course of the day, the Wolfsburg-based company is likely to present its sales figures for the first quarter. At 2 p.m. the electric car ID.7 celebrates its premiere.
Judgment expected for Airbus and Air France on fatal flight Rio-Paris
Almost 14 years after the crash of an Air France plane between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, a verdict is expected in the lawsuit against the airline and the manufacturer Airbus. At 1:30 p.m., a Paris court decides whether the corporations are partly to blame for the crash that killed 228 people.
Tight training program for Lufthansa A380 crews
The Lufthansa crews still have to complete a comprehensive training program before the Airbus A380 can be restarted. In addition to Leipzig-Halle, other airports in Germany will be flown to for take-off and landing maneuvers with the world’s largest passenger aircraft in the coming weeks.
Passenger numbers at Frankfurt Airport are increasing significantly
The airport operator Fraport welcomed around 4.3 million passengers at Frankfurt Airport in March. This is an increase of 45.4 percent compared to the same period last year, which was still affected by the corona pandemic, as Fraport announced. Without the public sector strike day, growth would have been around 160,000 passengers higher at over 50 percent.
Another cyber attack on Rheinmetall
The armaments and technology group Rheinmetall was again the target of a cyber attack on Friday. “We have started investigations,” said prosecutor Christoph Hebbecker. Rheinmetall spokesman Oliver Hoffmann confirmed in the evening an attack on the group’s civilian business.
Trial against ex-Steinhoff manager begins
In the multi-billion dollar balance sheet scandal at the international furniture group Steinhoff, the former CEO Markus Jooste (62) and a trustee will have to answer to the district court in Oldenburg starting tomorrow. The public prosecutor accuses the former boss of inciting in five cases and the trustee of aiding and abetting in four cases of balance sheet manipulation in the billions.
Merck & Co wants to buy biotech company for eleven billion dollars
The US pharmaceutical company Merck & Co wants to buy the biotech company Prometheus Biosciences for 10.8 billion US dollars. That’s a premium to Friday’s closing price of 75 percent. With the purchase, Merck wants to strengthen its immune disease business while its best cancer drug faces patent litigation.
Musk founds artificial intelligence company
Tech billionaire Elon Musk wants to get involved in the current hype surrounding artificial intelligence. The Twitter owner and boss of the electric car manufacturer Tesla has founded a company called X.AI in Nevada. Musk and his chief of staff Jared Birchall are listed as responsible for the company, which was already registered on March 9.
Microsoft manager: AI “historic opportunity” for Germany
At the start of the Hanover Fair, Microsoft’s Germany boss Marianne Janik called on people and companies in Germany to make greater use of artificial intelligence. “Artificial intelligence can develop an enormous boost for Germany.” The applications of AI “offer a historic opportunity”.