market report
Status: 08/11/2022 12:51 p.m
Investors are looking at a number of quarterly reports today. Future US interest rate policy also remains an issue: the initial euphoria about falling US inflation has already evaporated.
Despite a friendly start to trading, the DAX dropped to 13,661 points at times, but fought back to the level of the previous day. It is currently just below the 13,700 point mark. Market expert Andreas Lipkow from the Comdirect spoke of a “day of reflection” after the euphoria about the unexpected decline in US inflation. Yesterday’s price gains were exaggerated and “solely reflected the hope that inflation would become less dynamic”. Yesterday was the leading German index closed with an increase of 1.2 percent to 13,700.93 points.
Initially, US inflation data created a positive mood: the inflation rate there in July was 8.5 percent compared to the previous year, below the previous month’s figure of 9.1 percent. This raised investor hopes that the US Federal Reserve might slow the pace of interest rate hikes.
“The tightening cycle is far from over”
“Fed policymakers continue to stress that the tightening cycle is far from over and a turnaround early next year is highly unlikely,” said Craig Erlam, a market analyst at the broker OANDA.
San Francisco Federal Reserve District President Mary Daly told the Financial Times that it was far too early to declare victory over inflation. “There is good news in terms of monthly data that consumers and businesses are getting some relief. But inflation remains way too high and not close to our price stability target.”
Currently, the US futures are likely to support the market a little: In the USA, there are signs of a friendly start to trading so far. In the afternoon, current weekly US labor market data and US producer prices for July will be published.
Oil prices: IEA raises forecast
Oil prices are increasing slightly: both the North Sea variety Brent and the US variety WTI have increased slightly. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has raised its forecast for growth in global demand for crude oil. According to the monthly report, the gas crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, with a massive increase in the price of natural gas on the raw materials markets, has led to industrial companies and power plants increasingly operating their plants with oil. In recent months, Russia has drastically reduced gas supplies to Europe.
The agency expects global oil demand to grow by 2.1 million barrels (159 liters) per day this year. That’s 380,000 barrels per day, or about 2 percent more than the previous estimate. The agency estimates that total demand for the current year will be 99.7 million barrels per day. In the coming year, demand is then likely to increase to 101.8 million barrels per day.
RWE: What will become of the nuclear power plants?
The energy group RWE is keeping a low profile on a possible extension of the lifetime of German nuclear power plants. “We are waiting for the political decision,” said RWE boss Markus Krebber. Competitor E.ON had agreed to talks about longer terms the day before: “Should the federal government come to a reassessment of the situation as part of the ongoing stress test, we are ready to talk,” E.ON CFO Marc Spieker said yesterday.
So far it has been planned that the last three reactors in Germany will be shut down at the end of the year. They are operated by E.ON, RWE and EnBW. EnBW boss Frank Mastiaux had said that new fuel rods would be needed in the event of a significant extension. In the past few weeks, the calls for an extension of the service life have become louder and louder. Proponents point to the reduced Russian gas supplies and call for a reduction in the use of gas-fired power plants along with the nuclear power plants.
Hapag-Lloyd expects supply chains to normalize
The Hamburg container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd expects the supply chains to relax in the foreseeable future – and thus a drop in transport prices. “We are currently seeing the first signs in some trades that short-term rates are softening in the market,” said CEO Rolf Habben Jansen. In the first half of the year, Hapag-Lloyd took in significantly more than a year earlier, despite a practically stagnant transport volume. Because the bottlenecks in the ports lead to above-average turnaround times for ships and containers, and as a result, high transport prices. As a result, sales almost doubled to almost 17 billion euros.
Deutsche Telekom registers more new contract customers
Despite more consumer-friendly termination rights in Germany, Deutsche Telekom won more customers in the second quarter. After deducting terminations, 194,000 new contract customers were added under their own brand, more than in the same quarter of the previous year. Group sales climbed by almost six percent to around 28 billion euros. The bottom line is that adjusted net income after minorities climbed by almost 16 percent to 2.4 billion euros.
Siemens makes a loss
For the first time in almost 12 years, Siemens has to report numbers in the red – although business is good. The Munich group made a loss of 1.5 billion euros in the third quarter. The reasons for this are a high depreciation on the remaining share in the former energy division Siemens Energy and burdens in connection with Russia, since Siemens is withdrawing from there because of the Ukraine war.
Jump in profits at Salzgitter
Price increases for its products clearly played into the hands of the steel manufacturer Salzgitter in the second quarter. Due to jumps in profits in steel production, processing of the material and in trading, the pre-tax profit (EBT) more than tripled to around 970 million euros, as the SDax-listed company announced today. External sales increased in the second quarter compared to the previous year by half to 6.6 billion euros. The bottom line is that Salzgitter was left with 781 million euros after 231 million in the previous year. The group also confirmed the forecast that was raised in June.
Higher steel prices drive Thyssenkrupp
The steel and industrial group Thyssenkrupp continues to benefit from the increased material prices. On the other hand, the group is burdened by the higher interest rates: Thyssenkrupp had to make impairments worth millions in this context, which depressed net profit. In the third quarter, sales rose by a good quarter to almost eleven billion euros. Thyssenkrupp was able to almost triple the adjusted operating result (EBIT) to 721 million euros.
Lots of business for Daimler Truck
The truck and bus manufacturer Daimler Truck did a surprising amount of business in the second quarter thanks to price increases, favorable exchange rates and higher sales. Sales climbed 18 percent year-on-year to EUR 12.1 billion. Group earnings before interest and taxes adjusted for special effects increased by 15 percent to 1.01 billion euros. The Swabians increased the net profit attributable to the shareholders by a good half to 992 million euros.
Credit Suisse major shareholder Harris doubles stake
Credit Suisse major shareholder Harris Associates has almost doubled its stake in the major Swiss bank. Harris held a 10.1 percent stake at the end of July, according to a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Americans have thus further expanded their position as the largest shareholder. Harris is now well ahead of the other major Credit Suisse shareholders Qatar Investment Authority and Blackrock, each with five percent.
Disney is catching up with Netflix
Entertainment giant Walt Disney has seen rapid growth with its streaming services in the most recent fiscal quarter. On-demand services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ brought it together in late June to a total of around 221 million subscriptions. Disney has thus caught up with the previous streaming market leader Netflix, which recently lost customers and also ended the past quarter with around 221 million user accounts.
Overall, sales grew 26 percent year-on-year to $21.5 billion. Profit increased by 53 percent to 1.4 billion dollars (1.36 billion euros).