The Dax saw a slight increase on Wednesday. By the close of trading on Xetra, the index reached 26,286 points, marking a gain of 0.1 percent compared to the previous day’s close. After starting the day in the red, the Dax briefly trended upward by midday before building on those gains, though eventually moderating some of them.
Andreas Lipkow, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets, commented that “like the rabbit in front of the snake, a large part of global investors seem paralyzed and almost unable to act ahead of the quarterly figures from the AI highflyer Nvidia.” Despite this hesitation, however, Lipkow believes that “overall, the optimism before this week’s event is greater than the fear of disappointment. This is the only way to explain why the Dax can continue to fight its way upwards, step by step, day after day.”
The market received support from the continued decline in crude oil prices, which lessened inflation concerns. The analyst noted that this decline also took some wind out of the sails of the European Central Bank’s recent statements regarding further potential interest rate hikes. According to Lipkow, energy prices have a significant impact via second-round effects, which is a concern for many European policymakers.
Focusing on individual stocks, Qiagen’s shares were sought after due to renewed takeover speculations. Furthermore, Lipkow mentioned that decreasing economic uncertainty and the anticipated easing of the Middle East situation regarding energy prices made banks and financial stocks appear attractive again. Conversely, the heavy index component SAP faced selling pressure after an analyst downgraded its rating.
Nvidia’s quarterly results are scheduled for this evening, presenting the next major rally test. Lipkow suggests that while sales and profits are expected to trend toward the upper end of expectations, the critical question remains whether this alone is enough to stimulate the semiconductor sector further, and how the market for data centers will evolve in the future, according to Nvidia CEO Huang.
After this announcement, many investors are expected to finalize their investment decisions for the coming months within the sector. Lipkow pointed out that sectors such as semiconductors, construction, and energy recently benefited greatly, driving stock markets to new records. He stressed that it must now be determined whether these assumptions still hold true and how high the dynamism in these sectors will remain.
Before the market closed, the shares of Heidelberg Materials and Deutsche Bank led the performance list, while SAP shares finished at the bottom.
In other market movements, the gas price dropped: a megawatt-hour (MWh) of gas for September delivery cost 66 Euros. Should this price level remain stable, this implies a consumer price of at least around 11 to 14 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), including ancillary costs and taxes.
The oil price also declined. A barrel of North Sea Brent crude was valued at 88.31 US dollars late on Wednesday afternoon (around 5 p.m. German time), which was 0.3 percent or 27 cents less than the close of the previous trading day.
Meanwhile, the European community currency softened slightly on Wednesday afternoon. The Euro traded at 1.1651 US dollars, meaning the dollar was available for 0.8583 Euros.
