market report
Germany’s DAX should be trading slightly higher today after yesterday’s modest losses. A strong U.S. stock exchange provided momentum for German stock trading. The 16,000 mark should hold again.
According to pre-market indications, the German leading index will start XETRA trading at 16,078. This equates to a gain of 0.1% compared to yesterday’s closing level. Weak economic data from China weighed on the market yesterday, causing the DAX index to close slightly lower at 16,069 points.
Positive guidelines come from the US. The main U.S. stock index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed up 0.2% at 34,585. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 4,522, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.9% to 14,244. “Investors are finding that the economy has been really resilient so far and corporate earnings have been pretty good,” said Chris Zaccarelli, an investment expert at the Alliance of Independent Advisors.
In the US, the second-quarter earnings season is just around the corner. In the coming days, Tesla, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Netflix will release their business numbers. Most companies in the S&P 500 have beaten earnings estimates so far.
On the other hand, signals from Asia in the morning were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei was largely unchanged at 32,388. The broader Topix rose 0.4% to 2,249. In China, economic data released yesterday continued to weigh on equities. From April to June, GDP grew by only 0.8% month-on-month. The Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 0.4%. The all-important corporate index in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 0.3 percent.
In the foreign exchange market, EUR/USD can continue to move higher. The common currency is trading at $1.1245 this morning, remaining in an uptrend against the US Dollar.
Commodity prices rebounded from yesterday’s modest losses in early trade amid a gloomy economic outlook. The current price of a barrel of North Sea Brent crude oil is $78.67. Gold prices also edged higher again. An ounce of the precious metal costs $1960.
In Germany, auto stocks are likely to be the focus of the morning. The industry is increasingly locked in a price war for electric vehicles. Ford on Monday lowered the price of its F-150 Lightning Trucks pickup by 17 percent to the current $49,995. The company hopes to increase its share of the electric vehicle market dominated by Tesla. Earlier this year, Ford raised prices on electric vehicles. Volkswagen recently announced a significant reduction in the price of its ID.3 model in China.
The German building materials group Steico will be affiliated to the Irish Kingspan Group in the future. Schramek GmbH, which currently holds 61.1% of Steico, has signed an agreement with Irish industry colleagues to sell 51.0% of Steico, the company announced. The remaining 10.1% will initially be retained by Schramek. Steico expects the partnership with Kingspan to drive further growth.
SDAX investment firm DBAG has raised its forecast after selling construction technology company R+S Group at a profit. DBAG announces that R+S has settled in Swiss prefabricated house manufacturer Nokera. DBAG made a profit of 14 million euros from the resale. In addition, DBAG also holds a stake in the buyer, Nokera. For the current 2022/23 financial year (end September), the company now expects a net asset value (NAV) of between 660 and 715 million euros and a net profit of between 100 and 115 million euros.
A group of private plaintiffs is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court a dispute over Microsoft’s planned multibillion-dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Supreme Court should put the $69 billion deal on hold, a request. The court had no comment. The filing is separate from the U.S. antitrust agency’s Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to block the software giant’s takeover of the computer game maker. Xbox maker Microsoft hopes to expand its gaming business with the acquisition of Call of Duty Forge. The FTC is concerned this could harm competition.