Dax starts with profits – focus on monetary policy and company figures

Dusseldorf The leading German index begins the trading day with a slight plus and increases by 0.3 percent to 15,446 points in the first few minutes of trading. After losses at the beginning of the week, the Dax last stabilized on Wednesday and ended trading almost unchanged at 15,400 points.

The Dax thus continues its sideways movement in a trading range of 400 points: On the upper side, the high for the year from February 9th is 15,659 points as resistance, on the lower side the level between 15,250 and 15,275 points offers support.

This Thursday, some releases could provide impetus for the markets. On the one hand, the focus is on the inflation figures for the euro zone. At 11 am Eurostat announces the final figures for January. There could be deviations from the first data, because the figures for Germany had to be estimated first.

Important signals are also coming from the USA: the Fed minutes from the beginning of February were published here on Wednesday evening, after the close of trading in Frankfurt. According to them, “almost all” members of the Monetary Policy Committee are in favor of a rate hike of 0.25 percentage points. Only a few representatives therefore advocated a larger increase of 0.5 percentage points. The minutes are an indicator that the Fed is slowly approaching a possible end point of its rate hike cycle.

However, the minutes also show that the dangers of inflation remain a key factor for central bankers in the direction of monetary policy. The key interest rates must therefore be raised further and kept at a high level until inflation is clearly on a path towards two percent, it is said.

“The market takes this neither positively nor negatively, so the general direction of the equity markets should not change significantly,” said market analyst Frank Sohlleder of trading house ActivTrades.

The markets reacted cautiously to the protocols, the US indices closed unevenly: the Dow Jones index of standard values ​​fell 0.3 percent on Wednesday to 33,045 points from trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, on the other hand, advanced 0.1 percent to 11,507 points. The broad S&P 500 lost 0.2 percent to 3991 points.

The situation on the labor market remains an important criterion for the central bankers. The US Department of Labor released the number of weekly initial jobless claims in the afternoon. Investors pay particular attention to jobs data like this because it is believed to be a key determinant of how far the Fed will hike rates. The following applies: the more stable the labor market, the more likely it is that interest rates will rise.

Meanwhile, there are hardly any signals from Asia: the Shanghai stock exchange was 0.1 percent lower at 3287 points. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was down 0.1 percent. In Japan, the stock markets remained closed for a public holiday.

In Germany, investors look primarily at company figures: Deutsche Telekom presented its annual figures for 2022 before the start of trading. Last year, the group increased its sales by 6.1 percent to around 114.4 billion euros compared to the same period last year. Adjusted for special effects, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization including leasing costs rose by 7.7 percent to 40.2 billion euros. This year, the Dax group wants to increase its operating profit including leasing costs by four percent to almost 41 billion euros. Telecom papers add 0.3 percent.

Look at the euro and oil

Oil prices recovered a small portion of their previous day’s losses on Thursday morning. In early trading, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in April cost 80.74 US dollars. That was 14 cents more than the day before. The price of a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grade rose 17 cents to $74.12.

Oil prices are also influenced by monetary policy. Investors expect that the big central banks will take action against the high inflation for a while longer. The higher interest rates then in turn slow down economic growth and thus also the demand for crude oil.

The euro was up slightly in early trading on Thursday. In the morning, the common currency cost $ 1.0625, slightly more than the previous evening. However, the European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at $1.0644 on Wednesday afternoon.

Look at the individual values

automobile 1: The online used goods retailer reports an adjusted operating loss of 165.6 million euros for 2022. In the current financial year, the company only wants to make a loss of 60 to 90 million euros. The papers lose 1.8 percent.

Fielman: Last year, the glasses manufacturer recorded a 24 percent lower net profit of around 110 million euros. The dividend for the past year is to be halved to 75 cents. The company’s stock fell 5.2 percent.

Munich Re: The reinsurer exceeded its profit target last year and increased its net profit by 17 percent to 3.42 billion euros. The group is also confident for the new year. The share still loses 3.5 percent, putting it at the bottom of the Dax.

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