market report
Status: 08/18/2022 1:07 p.m
After a slow start, the DAX has now made up a lot of ground. Nevertheless, inflation and the US interest rate policy remain major uncertainties on the stock market.
At its peak, the DAX gained 1.1 percent to 13,775 points by midday. The leading German index was able to make up for part of yesterday’s price losses. The day before was he failed at the 14,000 point mark after a one-week recovery phase
Nevertheless, further stock market developments are likely to depend heavily on Wall Street, the Nasdaq technology exchange and monetary policy in the United States. The publication of the most recent meeting minutes of the US Federal Reserve gave little information as to whether the monetary authorities there want to take another unusually large interest rate hike of 0.75 percentage points in September, or whether they will leave it at a hike of half a point .
In the minutes, “although attention was drawn to the need for further interest rate hikes, it was also expressed that the rate of increases could be slowed down depending on economic developments,” wrote the analysts at Helaba in a comment.
Euro only benefits for a short time
In the meantime, investors on the foreign exchange market are preparing for further sharp rises in interest rates in the USA and are therefore accessing the US currency. The euro fell temporarily to 1.0146 US dollars.
Inflation at record levels
Meanwhile, inflation in the euro area accelerated further from a high level in July, reaching a record high. Compared to the same month last year, consumer prices increased by 8.9 percent, according to a second estimate from the statistics office Eurostat. The first estimate was thus confirmed as expected by economists. This is the highest rate since the euro was introduced as book money in 1999. In the previous month, consumer prices rose by 8.6 percent.
Brent will be slightly more expensive
Oil prices continue to recover. A barrel of the US North Sea Brent costs around 95 US dollars. According to market observers, concerns on the oil market about excessive supply combined with insufficient demand have eased somewhat. Data on US inventories from the previous day also contributed to this. These had unexpectedly and significantly fallen in the past week, which was taken as a sign of increasing demand.
Uniper share under pressure
After the roughly twelve percent price slide yesterday, the Uniper papers are still going downhill today. A market participant said it weighed on statements by the company in the semi-annual report on the currently mounting losses from the situation in the gas market. At the current rate of deterioration, it is likely that the gas levy that has been decided will have to be implemented earlier and is too low. The broker therefore expects an upward adjustment, but only after three months. This increases the risk that a further injection of funds could become necessary in addition to the rescue package that has been decided upon.
Hella expects strong growth
Thanks to a large number of new orders, the automotive supplier Hella is expecting a much better development in the new financial year than in the past. After a slight decline to 6.3 billion euros in the previous year, sales are expected to grow to 7.1 to 7.6 billion euros, as the SDAX company announced. This excludes the effects of exchange rates and purchases and sales. On average, analysts had expected a value at the lower end of the range. The headlight specialist brought in a record order volume of around ten billion euros in the automotive supplier division.
Shop Apotheke shares benefit from competition
The papers of the shop pharmacy develop above average due to optimistic news from the Swiss competitor Zur Rose. The online pharmacy is aiming for operational profitability as early as 2023 and thus earlier than previously announced.
SAF-Holland achieves takeover target
The commercial vehicle supplier SAF-Holland has reached its goal with the takeover of the Swedish brake manufacturer Haldex. At the end of the acceptance period on August 16, Haldex shareholders had tendered around 68.35 percent of the shares, the SDAX-listed company announced. Together with the 25 percent already held, SAF-Holland controls a good 93 percent of Haldex shares. The takeover bid was conditional on SAF-Holland receiving 90 percent of the shares.
Adyen disappointed
Dutch payment service provider Adyen fared worse than expected in the first half of the year. The company failed to meet analysts’ expectations in several respects. The operating result was even below the figure for the second half of 2021. In addition to the burden of exchange rate effects, management was also faced with increased expenses for travel and the hiring of skilled workers. Investors reacted correspondingly upset: the share went down by double digits.