market report
The DAX has done it again: the record in the DAX had only lasted one day when the German stock market barometer was already setting the next record high. How far up can things go now?
The DAX continues its record run at the end of the week, tailwind for prices on the German stock market is once again coming from Wall Street. At the start of trading on XETRA, the leading German index rose by 0.4 percent to 17,117 points. It then continues upwards to 17,165.58 points.
This means that the record high set just yesterday at 17,089 points is already a thing of the past. From a chart perspective, there is now hope that the sliding zone between 16,800 and 17,000 is finally a thing of the past. A weekly closing price well above 17,000 points would confirm this reading.
With regard to the new record high, HSBC chart technology expert Jörg Scherer speaks of a “positive course” and the DAX now has further upward potential. Scherer estimates the price target to be around 17,450 points.
Tailwind for the DAX comes from Wall Street, where new interest rate hopes emerged yesterday. The background was worse-than-expected economic data, for example US retailers had a surprisingly poor start to the year. Concerns that consumer sentiment is overheating have been reduced, explained expert Stephen Innes from asset manager SPI Asset Management.
The Dow Jones index of standard stocks then closed 0.9 percent higher at 38,773 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.3 percent to 15,906 points. The broad S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent to 5,029 points.
Inspired by the upswing on Wall Street, the Japanese leading index Nikkei also rose further in the morning. The index, which includes 225 values, reached a new 34-year high during trading and was 0.9 percent higher at 38,487 points at the close of trading in Tokyo. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng recently rose by 2.5 percent. Mainland China’s stock exchanges remained closed today due to the Lunar New Year.
The dollar is showing strength in early forex trading. At the same time, the euro fell by 0.1 percent to $1.0763. The changed interest rate perspectives are now benefitting gold: the yellow precious metal was able to regain the $2,000 mark yesterday and is clearly staying above it at the end of the week, currently at just under $2,006.
Oil prices are moving slightly downwards shortly before the weekend. A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in April costs $82.76 this morning, 0.1 percent less. However, oil prices have risen on a weekly basis. The price of Brent crude oil has risen by around one dollar per barrel since Monday.
The RWE share in the DAX could be worth a look today. The energy company has entered into an agreement with the telecommunications group Vodafone to supply around 12,000 of 26,000 mobile phone stations nationwide with green electricity from the “Kaskasi” offshore wind farm. The system is expected to deliver a total of 250 gigawatt hours per year from 2026.
The Volkswagen Group and the Indian car manufacturer Mahindra have agreed on a supply pact for electrical components and batteries. Mahindra will equip part of its Inglo electric platform with electrical components from the Wolfsburg-based MEB platform and will also purchase battery cells from the Germans, the companies said. Mahindra will be the first partner to use VW’s so-called standard battery cell.
The next pilot strike is imminent at Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines. The Cockpit Association (VC) union has called on its members to go on a three-day strike starting on Saturday. The end of the strike is scheduled for Monday at 11:59 p.m. The VC announced yesterday that the aim is to reach a timely and fair conclusion on remuneration and the general tariff.
Two Vattenfall solar parks in Schleswig-Holstein are expected to supply the Essen-based specialty chemicals company Evonik with around 120 gigawatt hours of electricity annually from next year. The annual amount of electricity roughly corresponds to the consumption of 40,000 two-person households and displaces more than 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year in the German electricity mix.
The automotive supplier Hella is expecting a slowing recovery in the automotive sector after record sales last year. The company, which operates under the Forvia umbrella brand, therefore wants to invest around 200 million euros in automation and bundling activities by 2028 in order to reduce costs. This should result in annual savings of 400 million euros, and the group wants to reduce the cost base by 150 million euros by the end of 2025.
The Berlin medium-sized investor SMG is bringing the Sircle hotel group onto the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Sircle is to be merged into the takeover vehicle (SPAC) SMG European Recovery, which has been listed since May 2022 and will then be renamed Sircle SE, SMG announced yesterday evening. At the General Standard stock market debut planned for the second quarter, the operator of 37 boutique hotels under umbrella brands such as “Sir” and “Max Brown” is expected to have a market value of 250 million euros.
The sportswear giant Nike wants to reduce its workforce by around two percent as part of cost-cutting measures, as the sporting goods giant confirmed to the financial service Bloomberg. This corresponds to over 1,600 employees. The group announced in December that it wanted to save around two billion dollars in the coming years.
The Swiss reinsurer Swiss Re made a jump in profits last year thanks to noticeably lower expenses for natural catastrophes. The dividend is therefore to be increased to $6.80 per share from $6.40 in the previous year. Net profit shot up to $3.21 billion, after only $472 million in 2022, burdened by high claims payments.
Applied Materials exceeds market expectations with its second quarter forecast. The American chip supplier is expecting sales of $6.50 billion (plus or minus $400 million), as the company announced yesterday after the US stock market closed. Analysts previously expected $5.92 billion. Applied Materials pointed to a recovery in the PC market and increasing demand for artificial intelligence applications.
The makers of the chatbot ChatGPT close a gap in their offering with software that can generate videos from text specifications. The AI model called Sora will initially be made available to selected creatives, wrote OpenAI boss Sam Altman on the online platform X. Experts should also explore any security risks before the program can be used widely.
In the race for software with artificial intelligence, Google is improving its Gemini technology. Yesterday the Internet company presented the further development Gemini 1.5 Pro, which can, among other things, evaluate longer videos and texts. Gemini 1.5 Pro can capture and analyze up to one hour of video, up to eleven hours of audio recordings, texts up to 700,000 words long and up to 30,000 lines of software code, Google explained.
After expensive problems with ventilators and the recent recall of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, the Dutch now also have to fix hundreds of computer tomography (CT) scanners in the USA. The FDA classified the case in the highest danger level. Use of devices manufactured between 2007 and 2013 could result in serious injury or even death. Some of the equipment could become loose and fall down.