The concern over the situation in the Middle East and its expected spill‑over effects sent the DAX crashing on Tuesday. At the Xetra close the index was calculated at 23,791 points, a decline of 3.4 % from the previous day’s close.
Investors are keeping a particularly wary eye on energy prices, which have risen amid the Iran conflict. Higher energy costs could trigger a pronounced uptick in inflation, likely prompting interest‑rate hikes by the ECB and other central banks. Yet higher rates can be toxic for both the equity and real‑estate markets.
Oil reinforced its upward trend: a barrel of North Sea Brent fetched $83.61 on Tuesday afternoon at around 5 p.m. German time, representing a 7.6 % increase from the prior closing price.
Gas prices surged sharply in the forward market. The April delivery price spiked to €65 per megawatt hour at the peak but fell back to about €54 by the afternoon. Even so, this is still more than 20 % above the previous day’s level. Such a wholesale price would translate into a consumer price of roughly 11-13 cents per kilowatt hour when taxes and ancillary costs are factored in, should the level persist.
Only the Deutsche Börse ADR managed to escape the downward drift in the DAX; all other constituents lost ground. Beiersdorf added extra pressure when it issued a weak guidance, saying the consumer‑goods group could see only modest growth this year. By close of trading the stock was down about 20 %.
The euro weakened against the dollar on Tuesday afternoon: one euro was worth $1.1589, or conversely, one dollar was traded at €0.8629.
