The DAX saw its initial losses widen on Thursday through midday. The benchmark index was calculated at approximately 24,848 points around 12:30 PM, marking a 0.6 percent decline from the previous day’s closing level. Among top performers were Siemens Healthineers, BASF, and SAP, while shares of Eon, RWE, and Infineon registered declines.
Andreas Lipkow, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets, commented that investors currently face difficulties in determining a sustained market direction. He stated that optimists are betting on an economic recovery driven by positive indicators from the US and China, while pessimists highlight rising inflationary risks.
The analyst explained that central banks have attempted to maintain a neutral stance through carefully managed verbal interventions. Lipkow added that the DAX not separating before today’s US economic data was predictable. He predicts that following the recent sequence of company earnings reports, the market will be forced to pick a direction at least in the short term. Nevertheless, he questioned whether the current momentum would be strong enough to resume record highs, emphasizing that it is crucial that the incoming data does not trigger further profit-taking in the DAX, a trend that has been observed increasingly in recent days.
Elsewhere, the European common currency weakened slightly on Thursday afternoon. The Euro traded at 1.1463 US dollars, meaning the dollar was priced at 0.8724 Euros. Meanwhile, oil prices dropped; a barrel of Brent crude in the North Sea cost $84.61 on Thursday afternoon (at 12 AM Central European Time), which represented 0.4 percent-or 34 cents-less than the end of the previous trading day.
