The DAX saw a slight increase as the week drew to a close. At the close of trading on Xetra, the index stood at 26,046 points, representing a 0.2 percent gain from the previous day. However, on a weekly basis, the index remains down by around two percent.
Today, trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was dominated by shares of Germany’s largest automaker, Volkswagen. This surge followed the approval by the Supervisory Board of plans to cut costs through workforce reductions. The car manufacturer plans to eliminate another 50,000 jobs by 2030, a move intended to bring VW back on track and enhance its international competitiveness. This plan drove the VW share price almost seven percent higher, propelling the stock to the top of the DAX.
Andreas Lipkow of CMC Markets noted that other car manufacturer shares also benefited from this positive spillover effect, firmly placing them among the winners. Beyond the news from Wolfsburg, hopes for an economic recovery played a critical role. Overall, trading in the DAX remained cautious today, as investors hesitated to jump into the stock market ahead of the upcoming long holiday weekend in the United States.
Later in the afternoon, a significant US labor market report was released. While the creation of 162,000 new jobs in the US economy drastically exceeded market expectations, initially, it brought the fear of rising interest rates back into the market just 24 hours later. Fed Governor Waller had recently pulled some of this market sentiment out. Nevertheless, Lipkow stressed that for the stock market, a robust economy holds far more weight than interest rate concerns. “Many employees in the US economy contribute more than an interest rate hike would damage,” he stated.
Separately, the common European currency was slightly weaker on Friday afternoon: one Euro cost $1.1620, while the Dollar was trading at 0.8606 Euros.
