The worsening gas crisis sent the Dax to a new low since early March on Thursday. The weak US stock exchange start did the rest, so that the leading German index dropped to just over 12,600 points at times.
The worsening gas crisis sent the Dax to a new low since early March on Thursday. The weak US stock exchange start did the rest, so that the leading German index dropped to just over 12,600 points at times.
By the end of trading, there was a little relaxation in the stock markets. The Dax ended the day with a discount of 1.69 percent to 12,783.77 points.
However, the half-year balance remains sobering with a loss of 19.5 percent. The record high of just under 16,300 points reached in November is a long way off. While the expected turnaround in interest rates in the USA initially had a negative impact at the beginning of the year, other worries quickly emerged: the war in Ukraine and the rapid rise in prices, particularly in the energy and food sectors, and the fear of a recession.
The MDax lost 2.11 percent on Thursday to 25,823.45 points. It also went down across Europe and in the USA. The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 lost 1.69 percent to 3454.86 points. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial lost around one percent at the close of trading in Europe.
Positive economic signals from China did not help the stock markets. Instead, the worsening gas crisis in Germany is worrying more and more market participants worldwide. Expert Stephen Innes from the asset manager SPI Asset Management wrote that it was no longer just a European problem, but that the whole world was being held hostage by the energy situation in Germany. If the gas emergency is not resolved soon, it could result in a deeper global energy crisis.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) now fears a complete lack of Russian gas supplies through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream. In mid-June, Russia had already severely curtailed deliveries, citing technical problems. This puts the energy supplier Uniper in serious trouble.
After billions in losses had already accumulated in the first quarter, the situation has now worsened. Uniper therefore sent a call for help to the federal government and also canceled its profit target for 2022 on Wednesday evening. The share fell by 14.4 percent and dragged the shares of RWE and Eon down with it.
“With Uniper, not just any company cashed in on its annual forecast today and entered into talks with the federal government about stabilization measures. The energy supplier is symptomatic of the crisis that the German economy is likely to face in the coming months due to the simple lack of gas,” explained market analyst Jochen Stanzl from CMC Markets.
With a drop of 6.5 percent at times, SAP set course for its corona low in March 2020 and then recovered somewhat. The software papers ended the day with minus 3.6 percent. A negative study by French investment bank Exane BNP Paribas weighed on sentiment. The investment story remains complicated, wrote analyst Stefan Slowinski. He sees demand risks because investments in software are likely to be increasingly put to the test. Other technology stocks such as Infineon or Suse also fell at an above-average rate.
Gloomy economic prospects also had an above-average impact on stocks from the automotive sector. The industry is already suffering from a shortage of semiconductors and supply chain problems. An impending recession in the USA and in the euro zone is further clouding the prospects. In the Dax, Porsche Holding, Mercedes-Benz and VW lagged behind with discounts of between 4.1 and 5.2 percent.
Real estate values also continue to have a difficult time in view of the rising interest rates. Grand City, Adler and Aroundtown each lost a little more than 10 percent. However, Aroundtown was traded with a dividend discount.
The euro temporarily fell below 1.04 US dollars, but was then quoted again at 1.0469 dollars in the early evening. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0387 (Wednesday: 1.0517) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9627 (0.9508) euros. On the bond market, the current yield fell from 1.49 percent on the previous day to 1.32 percent. The Rex pension index rose by 0.92 percent to 133.21 points. The Bund future gained 1.50 percent to 149.01 points.
