market report
After last week signaled a false start for the DAX & Co., the markets surprisingly turned up significantly yesterday. The leading German index is likely to start in positive territory today too.
According to pre-market indications, the DAX will begin XETRA trading at 16,750 points, 0.2 percent above yesterday’s closing level. Yesterday, after initial losses, the index gained 0.7 percent to 16,716 points.
Once again there was tailwind from the US stock markets, which also affected the DAX. Technology stocks were particularly popular on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow Jones index of standard stocks closed 0.6 percent higher at 37,683 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 2.2 percent to 14,843 points. The broad S&P 500 gained 1.4 percent to 4,763 points.
A price jump of more than six percent at Nvidia, among other things, ensured a good mood. Rivals like Intel and Marvell also gained between 3.3 and 6.9 percent. Other technology stocks such as Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft also advanced by up to 2.7 percent. According to insiders, Nvidia will begin mass production of an artificial intelligence (AI) chip developed for China in the second quarter.
In Asia, too, the indices mostly rose in the morning. Japan’s Nikkei index closed 1.2 percent higher at 33,763 points. The broader Topix index rose 0.8 percent to 2,413 points. The Shanghai stock exchange gained 0.3 percent. The index of major companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen gained 0.3 percent.
On the foreign exchange market, fluctuations in the morning are kept within narrow limits. The euro is hovering around the previous day’s level and is currently trading at $1.0954. In the USA, hopes of rapid interest rate cuts in the new year appear to be fading. However, there are probably no more interest rate increases. According to Fed Director Michelle Bowman, the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) is “sufficiently restrictive” to bring inflation back to the Fed’s two percent target.
Oil prices continued to fall slightly this morning. A barrel of North Sea Brent currently costs just under $76. On the market, the price losses of the past few days are attributed to a price cut by Saudi Arabia. The leading OPEC country reduced the selling price for important trading partners in Asia. This underscores the deteriorating global outlook for oil demand, market observers said.
In the DAX, shares of the chip manufacturer Infineon, but also SAP, could benefit from the technology high on the Nasdaq today. However, Infineon is still dealing with the consequences of the insolvency of the former memory chip subsidiary Qimonda. In the legal dispute with the Qimonda insolvency administrator, the court-appointed expert submitted his report. According to the statement, he claims, among other things, that the storage business spun off from Infineon was not valuable. At the beginning of 2009, Qimonda filed for bankruptcy.
Volkswagen is integrating the popular chatbot ChatGPT into its vehicles. The software, which can form sentences at the linguistic level of a human, will be available within the in-house language assistant IDA, VW announced yesterday at the CES technology trade fair. The first vehicles with the function will be on display at the innovation show in Las Vegas. ChatGPT is expected to come to several production vehicles from the second quarter. According to Volkswagen, it will be the first volume manufacturer to install ChatGPT in series vehicles.
Despite the setback for Bayer’s biggest drug hope Asundexian, Bayer is continuing its expansion in the USA. The experimental anticoagulant could still be a success if the second study to prevent strokes is positive, said the drug manufacturer’s head of pharmaceuticals, Stefan Oelrich, at a conference in San Francisco. There are also big opportunities in the US for the company’s cardiovascular and menopause drugs, including Elinzanetant, which is being tested and is intended to relieve menopausal symptoms.
Airbus shares in the DAX could be the focus of some investors after US competitor Boeing remains under pressure. After a fuselage part of a Boeing 737 Max 9 broke out in flight, two US airlines discovered problems with other aircraft of this type. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines reported loose screws and parts yesterday after initial inspections. It was not initially announced how many machines have been affected so far. The US aviation authority FAA ordered aircraft of this type to be grounded and inspected at the weekend.
Electronics giant Samsung has recorded a decline in operating profit for the sixth consecutive quarter. Earnings from ordinary business activities fell 35 percent year-on-year to 2.8 trillion won (around 1.95 billion euros) in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to preliminary figures. Samsung Electronics leads the market in smartphones and memory chips. The figures for the months October to December were below market expectations. The shares fell around two percent in the morning.
According to a newspaper report, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is in discussions about a $13 billion takeover of network equipment provider Juniper Networks. The almost 100-year-old US technology group wants to use the deal to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal could be announced this week. Shares of HPE fell 7.7 percent, while Juniper rose 21 percent in after-hours trading.