10:10 p.m. – US investors do not dare to come out of cover
Neither the Dow Jones nor the Nasdaq Index were able to break away from their Friday closing levels today. People preferred to wait for the quarterly reports from Apple, Amazon and the semiconductor company AMD, which were due in the course of the week. However, there was already a clear movement in one share in the Dow, down: at Johnson and Johnson. In the scandal surrounding suspected asbestos-contaminated baby powder, the company had just suffered a judicial defeat. The course buckled around 4 percent. In contrast, Exxon Mobil was in demand with a plus of around 3 percent. The oil giant wants to get into the production of lithium and is therefore allegedly already in talks with Volkswagen and other car manufacturers.
6.14 p.m. – DAX is running out of air at the end
At times, things looked really good on the German stock markets today. The Dax reached a new high of 16,529 points, after a new record had only been set on Friday. Two factors ensured the good atmosphere. On the one hand, Chinese economic data turned out better than feared by experts. This raised hopes for the global economy.
On the other hand, the inflation rate in the EU was 5.3 percent in July, lower than in June. And both together made investors confident that the ECB will not be turning the interest rate screw any further in the near future. However, the momentum on the German stock exchanges was lost towards the end of trading. In the end, the DAX even had a good 20 points minus on the boards. 16,447 the closing score. The MDax for medium-sized companies, on the other hand, gained half a percent.
5.50 p.m. – Losses for Munich Re, Hannover Re and Siemens Energy
A look at the 40 German companies in the DAX: Today, the stock exchange sees 16 stock corporations with price gains and 23 companies with losses. For one company, the price is largely at the level of the last trading day. Below is the status as of today (5:50 p.m.):
The companies Sartorius, Infineon and Rheinmetall are currently the winners, with price gains of 2.3 percent (Sartorius), 1.6 percent (Infineon) and 1.3 percent (Rheinmetall).
The worst things are going so far for Siemens Energy (-2.4 percent), Hannover Re (-1.9 percent) and Munich Re (-1.8 percent).
💡 We obtain price data from the Munich Stock Exchange (gettex), which we use with the help of automated data processing convert to text. Last status of the data is 5.50 p.m., the development is calculated since shortly before 6 p.m. of the last trading day. For the accuracy of the information we take no responsibility.
4:26 p.m. – Lufthansa pilot strikes?
Lufthansa’s cockpit staff is expected to decide by mid-August whether to accept the recently negotiated tariff package or whether to go on strike at the airline. Voting on this will begin this week and will be completed within two weeks, said a spokesman for the Cockpit (VC) pilots’ association. VC had negotiated a package with higher salaries and many other points with Lufthansa last week. She presented this to her members for voting. The union only wants to seal the deal for the main brand Lufthansa and the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo if there is a majority in favor. In this case, Lufthansa customers were spared many flight cancellations in the middle of the summer travel season.
3:56 p.m. – Dow Jones little changed, Johnson & Johnson under pressure
Investors on Wall Street are taking it easy at the start of the week. The Dow Jones is hardly changed.
The focus is on the consumer goods group Johnson & Johnson. A new setback in the scandal about suspected asbestos-contaminated baby powder is affecting the share. A US judge has rejected Johnson & Johnson’s second attempt to bankrupt a subsidiary that was set up specifically to contain billions of dollars in risk related to the controversial talc product. Johnson & Johnson shares are down 3.7 percent.
1:27 p.m. – Lufthansa wants compensation from the last generation
The Lufthansa Group demands compensation after the airport blockades by the last generation. A Lufthansa spokeswoman said the intention was to assert claims for all airlines in the group. It is about dozens of flights that were canceled on July 13 this year due to blockades in Düsseldorf and Hamburg, as well as a climate protest on November 24 last year at Berlin’s capital airport. With their protest, the activists want to draw attention to the negative impact of air traffic on the climate. Lufthansa initially did not comment on the amount of damage, but according to experts it should be in the millions of euros. The Lufthansa share has gained almost 17 per cent since the beginning of the year.
12:52 p.m. – Frankfurt again among Europe’s top 5 airports
In June, Frankfurt Airport returned to being one of the five busiest airports in Europe. However, 26.9 million passengers in the first half of the year still mean a deficit of around 20 percent compared to the same period in the pre-Corona year 2019, as reported by the European airport association ACI Europe. The busiest hub is London Heathrow with 37 million passengers handled before Istanbul. The hub of Turkish Airlines was the only major airport in Europe that, at 35.6 million, already had more passengers than before the pandemic. Paris and Amsterdam follow. Frankfurt displaces Madrid from fifth place. Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, can be found on the stock exchange in the MDAX among medium-sized companies. The Fraport share price has increased by almost 20 percent since the beginning of the year.
12.21 p.m. – Adidas extends contract with Manchester United
Adidas equips the English soccer record champions Manchester United until 2035 and increases the new ten-year contract to a billion euros. ManU has negotiated a guaranteed minimum sum of 1.04 billion euros for the ten years from 2025, as the Premier League club announced. Adidas replaced bigger rivals Nike at Man Utd in 2015 with a deal worth £750m. In the new contract, the women’s team from Manchester, which was introduced in 2018, should also be given more prominence.
11.12 a.m. – Inflation in Euroland has fallen slightly
The price pressure in the euro zone has eased only slightly despite the ever-higher key interest rates. According to the statistics office Eurostat, consumer prices rose by 5.3 percent in July compared to the same month last year. Experts had expected that after 5.5 percent in June. However, the core rate, which excludes the volatile energy and food prices as well as alcohol and tobacco, did not fall: it remained at the previous month’s value of 5.5 percent. The European Central Bank pays special attention to the core rate because it is considered an important measure of underlying inflation trends.
EuroStat’s first estimate of growth in the euro zone in the second quarter turned out better than experts had expected. From April to June, gross domestic product increased by 0.3 percent compared to the first quarter.
The DAX has turned slightly into positive territory and gains 0.3 percent to 16,516 points. The euro stands at $1.1032.
10:09 a.m. – Import prices continue to decline
The prices of goods imported into Germany fell again in June. They fell by 11.4 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the Federal Statistical Office. This is the sharpest drop since September 2009. In May, import prices fell by around 9 percent. In the past year, however, they had increased by more than 30 percent at times. The decisive factor was the Ukraine war, which had made energy and raw materials much more expensive. The statistics office explains the current price decline primarily with a base effect: Because prices had risen sharply in the previous year, the comparison with the then high price level is now high. And that’s especially the case with energy imports, which were nearly 45 percent cheaper in June than a year ago. Natural gas became cheaper by a good 50 percent compared to the same month last year, but there is also a drop of 15.5 percent compared to the previous month. Import prices also influence consumer prices, which the European Central Bank bases its monetary policy on.
9:11 a.m. – DAX starts the week with a small minus
After the profits in the past trading week and the new record high on Friday, DAX investors are now taking a few profits with them. The DAX started the day with a small minus and is now losing 0.2 percent to 16,443 points. Hopes that the ECB would soon take a break from raising interest rates gave the DAX a strong tailwind last week. After the inflation data from the USA and Germany last week, investors are now waiting for the figures on the development of consumer prices in the euro area. Experts anticipate that the wave of inflation will also have subsided a little further in July to an inflation rate of 5.2 percent, after 5.5 percent in June. In addition, data on economic growth in the euro zone are also expected. Economists estimate that there was mini-growth of 0.1 percent in the second quarter, bringing the economy’s downturn to an end. The euro is currently at $1.1014.
8:35 a.m. – Beijing announces economic stimulus – stocks are up
After the current economic data from China disappointed again, the Politburo in Beijing, the highest decision-making body in the People’s Republic, decided to support consumption in the country. The subsidies for the purchase of electric cars and tourism are to be expanded. This emerges from a document published by the State Council. Residential rents are also to be reduced. The “fundamental role” of consumption in economic development should be given full prominence, it said.
The stock markets react with profits. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.4 percent, the CSI300 is up 0.5 percent and Hong Kong’s HangSeng is up 1.5 percent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei index closed up 1.3 percent at 33,172 points. The euro is at 1.10 12 dollars.
6:33 a.m. – Investors in China are hoping for economic support
Production in China contracted again in July due to weak global demand – for the fourth straight month. While the official manufacturing PMI rose slightly in July to 49.3 points from 49 in June, it remained below the 50 level, which signals growth. The service sector also disappointed. This underlines the need for further political support to boost domestic demand, according to stock exchanges.
Hopes for more comprehensive economic stimulus measures in China are fueling a buying mood in Asia. The Shanghai Composite Index is up 0.6 percent, the CSI300 of major Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks is up 0.8 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is up 1.5 percent and Tokyo’s Nikkei is up 1 percent. The euro stands at 1.1010 dollars.