The Dax has weakened after its strong start to the year. The leading German index fell by 0.38 percent to 14,436.31 points on Thursday. In the previous three days, however, the stock market barometer had risen by a good 4 percent and benefited from signs of easing inflationary pressure. The MDax rose by 0.85 percent on Thursday to 26,672.14 points.
According to job data from the US, inflation remained the focus. The private sector created an unexpectedly large number of jobs in December. Appropriately, significantly fewer applications for unemployment benefits were made than expected, as the weekly statistics showed. The shortage of labor tends to lead to rising wages, which can lead to rising prices. This could push the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more than expected. Sharply rising interest rates tend to be negative for the stock market as they make other investments such as bonds appear more attractive.
Among the individual stocks in Germany, the shares of Zalando and Hugo Boss each rose by around two percent. On the market, reference was made to the strong sales figures for the British Next Group at Christmas time.
The papers from Morphosys and Synlab from the SDax small-cap index were also given particular attention. Synlab’s shares fell by around seven percent. Proceedings had been initiated by the Portuguese competition authority against two subsidiaries of Europe’s largest laboratory operator. Accordingly, the two are said to have violated competition law together with competitors and a local industry association.
Morphosys shares responded to sales forecasts for the important blood cancer drug Monjuvi with losses of 5.7 percent. The biotech company expects small growth at best this year.
The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 fell by 0.36 percent to 3959.48 points. France’s Cac 40 also posted modest losses, while London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent on strong banking and retail stocks. The leading US index, the Dow Jones, fell by 1.2 percent at the end of trading in Europe.
The euro suffered from the robust US jobs data and fell to $1.0520. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at $1.0601. On the bond market, the current yield rose to 2.3 percent from 2.29 percent the previous day. The Rex pension index lost 0.2 percent to 125.59 points. The Bund future fell by 0.19 percent to 136.04 points.
