Bad numbers are punished with bad exchange rates

Frankfurt The European Central Bank (ECB) delivered its “double boom” – but the stock exchanges initially took it easy. On the day on which the ECB raised the key interest rate by a historically significant 0.75 percentage points for the second time in seven weeks, the leading German index Dax closed 0.1 percent up at 13,211 points.

But the serenity is deceptive. How nervous investors are in the midst of the ongoing turnaround in interest rates by the major central banks is shown by the extent to which they punish companies whose quarterly results fall short of expectations, which have already been downgraded: the motto “bad figures, bad prices” applies more than ever.