At 12:30 pm on Thursday, the DAX was still deep in the red. It traded at 22,905 points, 2.6 % below the previous day’s closing level. The leading stocks that day were Deutsche Börse, RWE and Hannover Rück, while the lowest performers were Von Eich, Infineon and Siemens Energy.
Chief market analyst Andreas Lipkow of CMC Markets said the market mood was worsening in tandem with institutional investors’ growing reluctance to keep high‑priced shares in their portfolios. “Already in the trading weeks leading up to Friday’s potential crash, it has become clear that sentiment could change” he added. “Before the Iran war, many institutional investors were hedged and had only expected a multi‑day conflict”.
Lipkow elaborated that the impact now is far more dramatic, moving from a local flare‑up to a global economic issue. “Iran is deliberately using economic pressure to upset US and Israeli plans. Diplomatic pressure from Asia and Europe on the warring parties could mount even more strongly. The dependence on Middle‑Eastern energy is too great and heightens pressure on individual countries”.
Inflation fears and the economy’s heavy reliance on energy imports place particular strain on European equities. In contrast, U.S. firms can partly distance themselves thanks to energy independence and are also benefiting from rising efficiencies driven by artificial intelligence. Even the U.S. Federal Reserve noted that increased integration of AI could generate deflationary trends. However, this is offset by impacts on the U.S. real‑estate market and consumer spending that are helped by highly specialized, now‑freed workers, according to the analyst.
On the currency front, the euro was slightly stronger at mid‑day: 1 EUR bought 1.1472 USD, meaning 1 USD equaled 0.8717 EUR.
Oil prices continued to climb, with Brent Crude reaching $114.40 per barrel at 12:00 pm German time-an increase of 6.5 % from the previous close.
