market report
Status: 08.02.2022 07:50 a.m
Ongoing interest rate speculation and the situation in Ukraine are currently keeping investors from buying shares. The high price of oil is also giving investors cause for concern. ECB boss Lagarde tries to appease.
According to calculations by banks and brokers, the DAX should begin trading with a slightly positive trend. Yesterday it had risen by 0.7 percent to 15,207 points. The prospect of an interest rate turnaround in the USA is currently holding investors back from larger commitments, so that many investors are taking a more defensive stance. The fundamental factors weighing on the market include central bank policy, a high oil price and the continuing smoldering conflict in Ukraine.
Lagarde speaks out
In view of the continuing fantasies about interest rates in the euro zone, ECB President Christine Lagarde is trying to calm inflation concerns and reassure consumers and investors: the chances have increased that the inflation rate will stabilize around the ECB’s target value of 2.0 percent in the medium term, she stressed she yesterday at a hearing before the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament.
There are no signs that inflation will become persistent and well above target over the medium term, which would require “significant tightening” of monetary policy, Lagarde said.
Dow Jones is treading water
In the US, the discussion has long continued. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) plan to raise key interest rates in the near future remains in the focus of investors. At the same time, the surprisingly strong labor market report for January is causing nervousness about the extent and speed of possible interest rate hikes this year.
That is why the specifications are weak: the leading index Dow Jones closed at 35,091.13 points, slightly above Friday’s closing level. The broader market S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 4483.87 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index fell 0.8 percent to 14,571.25 points.
Monetary policy also plays the decisive role in Asia. In Japan, the Nikkei index closed 0.1 percent higher at 27,284.52 points. The Shanghai stock exchange, on the other hand, was down 0.6 percent. The index of the most important companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen even lost 1.8 percent.
TUI wants to repay state aid
Despite the Omicron virus variant, the TUI travel group is expecting strong summer business and wants to repay the first part of the state aid. The repayment of the first 700 million euros in state aid is planned for April 1st. During the crisis, TUI had to be saved from insolvency with 4.3 billion euros. “The demand for travel is high across all markets,” said CEO Fritz Joussen. “The way out of the pandemic is becoming increasingly clear.”
In the first business quarter to the end of December, TUI achieved sales of 2.4 billion euros, around five times as much as in the first Corona winter a year earlier. The bottom line is that the group halved the loss from 780 million to 384 million euros.
Peter Thiel resigns as a member of the board of directors of Facebook parent Meta
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is stepping down from the Meta board of directors. Thiel was one of the first investors in the online network and has been a member of the company’s board of directors since 2005. According to US media, the 54-year-old wants to become even more involved in politics in the future and support the agenda of ex-President Donald Trump and Republican Party candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.
Born in Frankfurt and raised in the USA, the entrepreneur made a fortune alongside Elon Musk as a co-founder of the payment service PayPal and joined Facebook early on. The Forbes list puts his fortune at around $2.6 billion.