Fears of a global recession caught up with European investors again on Wednesday. Of the dax temporarily slipped below the 13,000 point mark. At the end of trading, the leading German index was still 1.1 percent lower at 13,144 points. “The economic risks and the restrictive monetary policy of the central banks speak against equities,” said portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from asset manager QC Partners. “Markets have yet to digest the new monetary policy environment with a potential slowdown in growth,” said Maarten Geerdink, chief equity officer for Europe at wealth manager NN. “That’s never a good sign for stocks.”
Beiersdorf was one of the few winners in the Dax. The share of the consumer goods manufacturer, which is considered defensive and therefore less susceptible to the economy, rose by 1.3 percent. In contrast, the papers of the chemical group BASF slipped 5.8 percent down. CEO Martin Brudermüller has prepared investors for a more difficult second half of the year. “That sounds very cautious and pessimistic, although no figures were given,” said a trader.
The legal setback in the United States in the dispute over the weed killer glyphosate hit Bayer again, losing 2.1 percent. The US Supreme Court had rejected the pharmaceutical and agrochemical company’s appeal.
A negative industry study by the US bank JPMorgan weighed on the stocks of the steel group Salzgitter, which was the weakest value in the S-Dax at minus eleven percent. As a result, Thyssenkrupp shares also fell by eight percent. In addition, the European Court of Justice has now confirmed the ban on the steel merger with Tata Steel. The papers of the steel trader Klöckner & Co. lost 6.4 percent. Wall Street investors reacted positively to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s semi-annual testimony before Congress. Of the Dow Jones recovered from its significant initial losses and closed only slightly in the red. Powell committed to more brisk rate hikes to get inflation under control. At the same time, he expressed confidence that the US economy would be able to cope.