market report
Weak specifications from the USA again ensure a slow start for the German leading index in the morning. For the time being, the DAX remains trapped in a continuous loop below the 16,000 point mark.
At around 15,920 points, the German stock exchange barometer is expected to start XETRA trading in the middle of the week. This corresponds to an increase of 0.1 percent compared to yesterday’s closing level. Burdened by the weak US stock exchanges, the DAX turned around again just before the round mark of 16,000 points and closed just in the red.
In the USA, prices continued to tumble into the evening. The leading index Dow Jones Industrial lost one percent to 33,012 points. The market-wide S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent to 4110 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 saved a 0.1 percent gain to 13,426 jobs from trading. An unexpectedly sluggish US retail recovery weighed on performance. According to data from the Department of Commerce, retail sales increased in April, but the increase was only half as strong as expected.
Added to this is the ongoing stalemate in the US debt dispute. In a few days, the government is at risk of defaulting unless it agrees with Republicans in Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned a default could occur as early as June 1st. In their estimation, this would result in a collapse on the financial markets and a massive recession.
A rather positive picture is offered in the morning on the Asian stock exchanges. Good economic data from Japan send the markets in Tokyo into the plus. The Japanese Nikkei index was 0.7 percent higher over the course of the year and broke the 30,000 point mark for the first time since September 2021. The world’s third largest economy grew 1.6 percent year-on-year in the January-March period. Despite rather weak industrial data for China, the Shanghai stock exchange is also up 0.2 percent.
Even on the foreign exchange market, the euro cannot move up significantly against the dollar. The European single currency is currently trading at $1.0865. The mark of 1.10 dollars, which had recently been exceeded, is thus a little out of reach. Little movement on the oil market at the moment. The price of a barrel of North Sea Brent crude oil remained unchanged at $74.65. At $1991, the troy ounce of gold is once again approaching the $2000 mark.
Companies from the leading German indices are again presenting a range of business figures and forecasts today. The technology group Siemens recorded record profits in its two core divisions in the second quarter of 2022/23, as the company announced in the morning. Also thanks to the recovery of the former energy technology subsidiary Siemens Energy, in which Siemens still holds 32 percent, net profit tripled to 3.55 (2021/22: 1.21) billion euros. The result from the industrial business rose by 47 percent to 2.61 billion euros, but thus just missed the expectations of the analysts. Sales increased on a comparable basis by 15 percent to 19.4 billion euros.
Commerzbank also surprised with a significant profit in the quarter. The turnaround in interest rates gave the bank a jump in profits to 580 million at the start of the year, almost double the figure for the same period last year. That is also around 100 million euros more than experts expected on average. Net interest income rose by almost 39 percent year-on-year to around EUR 1.95 billion. At the same time, the risk provision for possible loan defaults was EUR 68 million, well below the previous year’s figure of EUR 464 million.
The software group SAP had already specified its medium-term goals yesterday evening as part of its Sapphire trade fair. The company raised the forecast for consolidated sales to more than 37.5 billion euros from the previous 36 billion. In contrast, it lowered its expectations for cloud revenues to more than 21.5 from more than 22 billion euros. The operating profit target remained unchanged at around 11.5 billion euros. In addition, SAP announced a share buyback with a volume of five billion euros.
The investment company Swoctem has secured more than 40 percent of the steel trader Klöckner & Co from the SDAX in a voluntary public takeover bid. This was announced by the investment company of Klöckner’s major shareholder Friedhelm Loh yesterday evening after the stock market closed. However, the completion of the offer still has to be approved by antitrust law. According to earlier information, however, Loh is not aiming for a majority stake. Klöckner should therefore remain listed.
The electric car manufacturer Tesla traditionally does without advertisements, but CEO Elon Musk now wants to break with this line. “We’re going to try some advertising and see how it goes,” Musk said yesterday at Tesla’s shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas. Given the high demand, Tesla did not need paid ads for a long time. Musk used his own popularity and other means as marketing tools – above all the online platform Twitter, which he has since taken over.