Market report
Status: 07/29/2021 9:51 a.m.
At the start of trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the DAX does not exactly show major fluctuations. Instead, the music plays on many individual stocks.
The DAX started trading with slight price gains. At its peak, the leading German index initially rose to 15,611 points, an increase of 0.3 percent.
The Fed has decided
The US Federal Reserve (Fed) is initially continuing its extremely loose monetary policy despite high inflation and solid economic growth. It left the key interest rate unchanged between zero and 0.25 percent. Securities purchases, with which the economy is additionally supported, will also be continued at the current pace. At the same time, the central bank is preparing the economy for a somewhat less generous monetary policy. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that discussions about reducing stimulus injections are getting more intense. Due to the uncertainties, it is still too early to commit to a schedule.
Wall Street investors initially did not respond to the comments. The Dow Jones index closed 0.4 percent lower at 34,930 points. The S&P 500 sank minimally to 4400 points. On the Nasdaq technology exchange, the composite index advanced 0.7 percent to 14,762 points.
The euro will rise in the morning to the $ 1.1870 area, reacting to the somewhat lower interest rate fantasy in America. The Japanese stock market went up strongly today. The Nikkei index, which comprises 225 values, gained 0.7 percent to 27,782 points by the end of trading.
Facebook doubles profit
Facebook profited massively from rising advertising revenues in the past quarter. Sales of the world’s largest online network jumped 56 percent year-on-year to a good 29 billion dollars. At $ 10.4 billion, profits were double what they were a year ago.
PayPal with declining profits
The online payment service PayPal increased its revenues by 19 percent year-on-year to 6.2 billion dollars in the second quarter. Total payments processed grew 40 percent to $ 311 billion. Nevertheless, the profit collapsed in view of significantly higher spending by 23 percent to the bottom line $ 1.2 billion.
5G drives Qualcomm
At the chip company Qualcomm, interest in super-fast 5G cellular technology is causing rapid growth. In the past quarter, sales rose 65 percent year-on-year to a good eight billion dollars. The profit even jumped from 845 million dollars a year ago to a good two billion dollars recently.
Ford raises forecast
The auto company Ford performed better than expected in the second quarter despite problems with the supply of semiconductors and raised its annual targets. Thanks to an improved supply of components, the group expects to produce 30 percent more cars in the second half of the year than in the first two quarters. Ford therefore increased its operating profit forecast by $ 3.5 billion to $ 9 billion to $ 10 billion.
Volkswagen is leaving the pandemic behind
Volkswagen posted record results in the first half of the year. With five million vehicles, the group sold around 28 percent more than in the same period of the previous year, which, however, had been affected by the Corona crisis. Sales rose by almost 35 percent to almost 130 billion euros, and operating profit of 11.4 billion euros even exceeded 10.0 billion euros in the first half of 2019. Due to the positive development, the auto giant raised its forecast for the full year. The group announced that the sales revenues would be “probably significantly” above the previous year’s figure.
HeidelbergCement dares to do more
The building materials group HeidelbergCement is becoming more confident for the year as a whole. The DAX group now expects strong growth in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Previously, the company had promised a slight increase. In the second quarter, sales climbed by 15 percent year-on-year to almost five billion euros. Adjusted earnings rose by almost 18 percent to 1.2 billion euros.
Airbus doubles its goal
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus expects earnings twice as high for the current year as before. The Franco-German group screwed the forecast for adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) from two to four billion euros. In the first half of the year it was already 2.7 billion euros. Airbus now plans to deliver 600 commercial aircraft by the end of the year; so far, the previous year’s level of 566 machines was the target.
Aixtron is driving high demand
The plant manufacturer, which produces for the semiconductor industry, improved its sales in the second quarter by 37 percent to 67.7 million euros. The net profit could be doubled to 7.7 million euros. Incoming orders increased by twelve percent to 139 million euros. The board increased its annual target for incoming orders to 440 to 480 million euros from 420 to 460 million previously.
MorphoSys is making more losses
The biotech company MorphoSys increased its sales significantly in the past quarter. At the same time, as at the beginning of the year, the MDAX company was again in the red due to high costs. The revenues jumped by more than double to 38.2 million euros, the operating loss amounted to 71.4 million euros after 48.4 million a year earlier. The Bavarians had only reduced their targets for the full year at the beginning of the week due to changed business expectations for the cancer drug Monjuvi.
Special income for Cancom
The IT service provider Cancom has sold its business in Great Britain and Ireland to a Telefonica subsidiary for 400 million euros. The book profit of the transaction amounts to 225 million euros, announced the MDAX-listed company.
Strong profit increase at Samsung
The South Korean electronics company Samsung achieved its best quarterly result since 2018 in the period from April to June. The world’s leading manufacturer of memory chips and smartphones recorded an increase in surplus of almost three quarters to 9.6 trillion won, the equivalent of a good seven billion euros.
Shell earns significantly more
The British-Dutch oil company benefited from higher oil and gas prices in the second quarter and posted a jump in profits. With an adjusted result of 5.53 billion dollars, the group reached the highest value since the end of 2018. Compared to the previous year, this corresponded to an increase of around 90 percent.
Nestle is becoming more optimistic
The Swiss food giant Nestle has raised its targets for the full year after a strong first half of the year. For 2021, the group now expects organic sales growth of five to six percent. So far, Nestle had promised organic sales growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range.
Credit Suisse still affected by Archegos
Credit Suisse felt the effects of the US hedge fund debacle in March in the second quarter. The profit fell compared to the same period last year by 78 percent to 253 million francs, as the institute announced today.