The DAX index increased significantly on Wednesday, closing the Xetra trading day at 24,081 points, marking a rise of 5.1 percent compared to the previous day’s closing levels. After a very positive start, the index remained in positive territory throughout the trading day.
Market analyst Andreas Lipkow, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets, cautioned against overinterpreting the day’s trading, noting that “in the recent past, things have not always turned out as investors expected”. He suggested that sometimes even a simple tweet from the White House is enough to move the markets.
Regarding the German economy, Lipkow pointed to visible signs of slowing momentum, citing factory orders for February as having risen by only 0.9 percent, rather than the expected 3.2 percent. In the context of the current energy price crisis, he added that producer prices across the Eurozone were also expected to undergo a noticeable trend reversal in the coming weeks, as evidenced by the recorded price decrease for the published February data.
Towards the end of trading, most DAX stocks were up; the top performers were shares of Siemens Energy, Infineon, and Siemens. By contrast, shares of RWE, Hannover Rück, and Deutsche Börse were the laggards.
Meanwhile, prices for commodities dropped substantially. The cost for one megawatt-hour (MWh) of gas for delivery in May fell to 46 Euros, representing a 14 percent decrease from the previous day. If this price level remains stable, it implies a consumer price of at least around nine to eleven cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), including ancillary costs and taxes.
Crude oil prices also fell sharply; a barrel of Brent crude oil cost $95.06 at mid-afternoon on Wednesday (German time), which was a 13.0 percent decrease, equivalent to 1421 cents less than the close of the preceding trading day.
In currency markets, the common European currency strengthened on Wednesday afternoon. The Euro cost $1.1690, while the US dollar was correspondingly priced at 0.8554 Euros.
