The DAX posted a slight gain on Thursday, closing trading on Xetra with 24,210 points. This represents a 0.1 percent increase compared to the previous day’s close. After a reserved start, the DAX initially built up gains slowly, although it briefly dipped into negative territory during the afternoon before settling slightly positive.
Andreas Lipkow, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets, commented that the DAX successfully defended its level above 24,000 points despite various disturbances encountered on the day. However, he noted that investors in Frankfurt largely maintained a waiting stance ahead of the upcoming SpaceX mega-IPO, focusing instead on traditional trending topics such as Artificial Intelligence and semiconductors.
Regarding the economy, Lipkow explained that the European Central Bank (ECB) now anticipates a slightly higher increase in prices. Specifically, the ECB forecasts an inflation rate of three percent in 2026, up from the previous projection of 2.6 percent. Consistent with this outlook, the ECB had preemptively raised the deposit interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.25 percent; this move, the analyst pointed out, was largely expected. Nevertheless, he mentioned that revised downward projections for growth extending through 2028 introduced a note of disappointment.
Macroeconomic data from the United States also circulated via news tickers. Lipkow reported that US labor market data revealed a weaker trend, showing 229,000 new applications for unemployment benefits. Furthermore, the positive trend shown by US consumer prices the day before could not be confirmed by US producer prices, which exceeded expectations both month-over-month and year-over-year, suggesting declining profit margins for companies.
Leading the stock movers just before the close were shares of Siemens Energy, followed by RWE, Rheinmetall, and Infineon. The SAP shares recorded the most significant decline.
Meanwhile, gas prices saw a marginal drop. A megawatt-hour (MWh) of gas scheduled for delivery in July cost 50 Euros, which would imply a consumer price of at least around ten to twelve cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), including ancillary costs and taxes, if levels remained stable.
Oil prices also fell slightly; a barrel of North Sea Brent crude cost $92.91 on Thursday afternoon at 5 PM German time, which was 19 cents, or 0.2 percent, less than at the close of the previous trading day.
The European common currency was slightly weaker on Thursday afternoon: one Euro cost $1.1523, meaning the dollar fetched 0.8678 Euros.
