The DAX started the trading day strongly on Monday morning. By 9:30 AM, the leading index was calculated at approximately 25,965 points, reflecting a gain of 1.3 percent over the previous day’s closing level, thus setting a new record.
Andreas Lipkow, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets, noted that while the all-time high had been narrowly missed over the weekend, positive outlooks from the U.S. could propel the DAX past that threshold today. He suggests it might merely be a formality to reach the next round figure this week, driven again by geopolitical developments in the Middle East. Specifically, the confirmation of renewed negotiations between the U.S. and Iran has caused oil prices to drop significantly.
In contrast, the situation in Asia was overshadowed by continued profit-taking in technology stocks. Both the Nikkei and Kospi faced noticeable declines. Furthermore, a coordinated intervention by the Bank of Japan and the Fed affected the market in Japan; their joint action brought the Yen back to a US dollar exchange rate of 156. This marked the first joint intervention by the two central banks in 15 years, leading to a weakening of the Yen and subsequently pressuring export-oriented stocks.
In China, indices showed positive tendencies, remaining within the profit zone despite the Purchasing Manager Index falling below expectations. However, the index remained in the expansion zone at 50.9 points, which is considered a positive indicator.
Lipkow also pointed out that the current European trading day will be heavily influenced by Purchasing Manager Indices from various countries. These reports offer a comprehensive view of the economic health of the Eurozone and the U.S. Separately, Germany has already released weaker individual retail sales figures, showing a drop of 1.1 percent against an expected decline of minus 0.4 percent. Later tonight, the quarterly results of Palantir are also scheduled to be released.
The European currency was slightly weaker on Monday morning; one Euro cost 1.1525 US dollars, making one dollar equivalent to 0.8677 Euros. The price of gold benefited from market activity, with a fine ounce trading at 4,055 US dollars in the morning (an increase of 0.3 percent), equating to 113.12 Euros per gram. Oil prices, conversely, fell sharply; a barrel of Brent crude in the North Sea cost around 83.39 US dollars at 9 AM German time, which was 454 cents or 5.2 percent less than the previous day’s close.
