The DAX slipped again at the end of the week. At Friday’s Xetra close, late afternoon in Frankfurt’s trading hall, the index stood at 23,591 points – 0.9 % down from the previous day’s close and almost 7 % lower than a week earlier.
The fall was driven by a mix of worries: the Iran‑Israel war and the resulting jump in energy costs, plus weak U.S. labour‑market figures that were released on Friday. Consorsbank’s chief market analyst Jochen Stanzl warned that “no one wants to grab the proverbial falling knife, especially as the rise in oil prices is accelerating and the 100 $ fear level is getting close”.
Oil prices surged again this Friday. At around 5 pm German time, Brent crude was trading at $91.10 per barrel – a 6.7 % increase over the previous day’s close.
The narrowing flow of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has turned the passage into a logistical bottleneck. Kuwait plans to pause parts of its output because it can no longer store the oil, and Saudi Arabia along with some other countries are also running out of space. Transit through the Hormuz is critical to the global market and especially to European exchanges. Stanzl added that “if transport across this narrow waterway can resume smoothly, it would signal a gradual easing of market pressure”.
Before this round of U.S. labour data, many had thought the New York Stock Exchange might weather the worldwide sell‑off. Now, however, stocks there are also falling. The most recent strong labour numbers feel like a slip, and Stanzl cautioned that it will take several more weeks for a clear picture to emerge. Investors will need to scrutinise job data closely, and growing stagflation fears are adding to the unease ahead of the weekend.
Currency markets were a bit weaker on Friday. One euro fetched $1.1605, so the dollar traded at €0.8617.
