The Dax began the trading week on a positive note Monday morning, registering around 25,315 points by 9:30 am, marking a 0.5 percent increase over Friday’s closing level. Thomas Altmann of QC Partners commented that following a negative previous week, the stock markets are experiencing a recovery in the week’s start.
Altmann cautioned, however, against interpreting this initial rally as an immediate long-term uptrend. He noted that early buyers are taking advantage of lower prices to enter the market, but pointed out that history shows these “bargain hunters” tend to quickly cash in their profits when the market begins to rise, often suppressing further gains.
He stated that the Dax remains trapped in a sideways trading pattern. Over the last 20 trading days, the index closed positively in ten instances and negatively in ten. “A market cannot be directionless,” Altmann added. He identified the 25,000 level and the 200-day moving average as continuing support levels on the downside, while the 50-day moving average presents a significant hurdle on the upside.
On the international front, Moody’s maintained France’s credit rating at Aa3. Altmann noted that this decision was somewhat surprising, given that the outlook for French creditworthiness has been negative for the past year. The French bond futures responded positively to this unexpected ruling.
In currency markets, the European community currency was slightly stronger Monday morning, trading at $1.1209 per Euro, while the Dollar was priced at 0.8921 Euros.
In commodities, the price of gold saw a modest increase, with fine ounces trading at $4,017 in the morning, up 0.4 percent. This equates to a price of €115.22 per gram. Conversely, the price of oil dropped significantly. At approximately 9 a.m. German time, a barrel of North Sea Brent crude was trading at $115.10, a decline of 1.4 percent or 161 cents from the previous closing day.
