In the middle of the week, the Dax made up for most of its price losses from the previous day. At the close of trading on Wednesday, the leading German index was 0.46 percent higher at 15,631.87 points from the day. Investors had gradually ventured forward after a speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday prompted renewed fears of more sharply rising interest rates. The MDax lost 0.16 percent to 28,811.74 points.
Fed leader Powell had surprisingly signaled a renewed tightening of monetary policy on Tuesday in view of the persistently high inflation, thereby putting some pressure on the stock markets. In midweek, he told the House Financial Services Committee during its second day of hearings before Congress that the Fed has not yet committed to its future pace of interest rate hikes. This calmed the market down a bit.
Apparently, the majority of investors have come to terms with the fact that interest rates will initially continue to rise and should reach their maximum at some point in the course of the year, wrote the authors of the Bernecker market letter with a view to the price recovery in the leading German index. “The exact time and level of this maximum seem to be of secondary importance, at least in the medium term.”
Among the individual values in the Dax, the shares of the fragrance and flavor manufacturer Symrise came into focus. Its balance sheet for the year and a better-than-expected outlook were initially overshadowed by the news that competition authorities are investigating the industry on suspicion of price fixing. Symrise confirmed that it had been contacted by the European Commission. But there are no details yet.
The Symrise shares, which had lost a little more than four percent at the end of the Dax, were up 0.6 percent by the end of trading. Several analysts assessed the long-term prospects for the industry as positive.
Adidas shares were also able to shake off their losses by the end of trading and ended trading with a plus of more than two percent. Over the course of the year, the shares had still suffered high price losses in the face of a slump in profits and a massive dividend cut.
Continental shares ended the day up 7.6 percent as the Dax winner. After a slump in profits last year, the automotive supplier and tire manufacturer wants to make significant progress in its day-to-day business.
Brenntag closed one percent lighter. A share buyback program was not able to alleviate the disappointment over meager annual figures and a cautious outlook in the long term. However, analysts assessed the group’s goals quite positively.
Fuchs Petrolub’s shares in the MDax lost 3.3 percent. Although the lubricants manufacturer expects further growth in the current year, it has remained cautious about its profit target due to cost increases.
The leading eurozone index, the EuroStoxx 50, recorded a plus of 0.22 percent to 4288.45 points, while the Paris stock exchange fell slightly. In London, on the other hand, things went up slightly. The New York Dow Jones Industrial recently fell by 0.25 percent.
The euro has stabilized somewhat after falling to a two-month low and was last traded at $1.0546. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.0545 (Tuesday: 1.0665) in the afternoon. The dollar had thus cost 0.9483 euros.
On the bond market, the current yield increased from 2.73 percent on the previous day to 2.77 percent. The Rex pension index fell by 0.34 percent to 122.99 points. The Bund future (June contract) climbed 0.25 percent to 132.41 points.
