Reluctance once again prevailed on the German stock market in the middle of the week. In early trading on Wednesday, the leading index Dax fell by 0.2 percent to 14,852 points. The recovery from the previous day did not initially continue. On Monday, the leading German index slipped to its lowest level in seven months, but in the end it held important support at 14,800 points. This was followed by a small recovery on Tuesday. The MDax of medium-sized companies lost more ground than the Dax with 0.9 percent to 24,193 points on Wednesday. The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 fell by 0.5 percent.
Deutsche Bank and Symrise lead DAX
The DAX received support from the companies’ quarterly balance sheets. In the morning, Deutsche Bank, Porsche AG, Beiersdorf and the flavor manufacturer Symrise presented their reports for the third quarter. The shares of Deutsche Bank and Symrise then led the DAX – with price gains of 7 and 2.6 percent respectively.
At Deutsche Bank, analyst Anke Reingen from Bank RBC praised good capital resources in the third quarter. With regard to Symrise, Charlie Bentley from Jefferies bank noted that the company had recently grown more strongly than expected.
Beiersdorf shares also benefited from the quarterly report, gaining 0.8 percent. Thanks to good business with the Nivea and Labello brands, the consumer goods group is becoming more optimistic for the current year. Porsche AG’s papers, on the other hand, stood still after the quarterly figures.
Among the small stocks, Traton lost 3.9 percent and was the biggest loser in the SDax of smaller stocks. VW’s commercial vehicle subsidiary has become more optimistic for the current year; However, this was already expected on the market.
US stock markets recover – Microsoft rises to record high according to figures
Investors on the US stock exchanges became a little bolder again on Tuesday. Support for the Dow Jones Industrial and the Nasdaq stock exchanges came from mostly positive quarterly reports from large US corporations and better than expected economic data. After the Dow closed at its lowest level since May at the start of the week, the best-known Wall Street index has now gained 0.62 percent to 33,141 points.
Microsoft rises to record high – hunt for Apple
The software giant Microsoft recorded significant price gains after announcing its quarterly figures late in the evening, while Alphabet shares fell by around 3 percent. On Wednesday, Microsoft shares temporarily climbed to a record high of $332; the stock has gained almost 50 percent since the beginning of the year. With a market value now of almost 2.5 trillion US dollars, Microsoft is moving ever closer to the most expensive company in the world to date, Apple, whose market value was most recently 2.7 trillion dollars. A change at the top would be the end of a brilliant comeback by Microsoft, which has more than doubled its stock market value since the beginning of 2020.
The artificial intelligence business is Microsoft’s most important price driver, and the company also recorded strong growth in its cloud offerings. Sales growth on the Azure cloud platform climbed to 29 percent in the last quarter from 26 percent in the previous quarter. Microsoft invested billions in a pact with the ChatGPT developer company Open AI and integrated its technologies across its own product range. Overall, Microsoft sales increased by 13 percent to $56.5 billion in the last quarter. Profit in the first quarter ended September rose by 27 percent to $22 billion.
Bitcoin near annual high
The digital currency Bitcoin has been rising significantly since last week and was most recently quoted at over 34,000 US dollars. On Tuesday, the cyber currency had even exceeded the $35,000 mark and reached its highest level in three months. In November 2022, the currency was below the Impression of the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX plummeted from over $21,000 to around $16,000. A year earlier, Bitcoin reached a record high of $69,000.
Oil prices are falling
Oil prices fell on Wednesday. Compared to the previous days, the price decline in the morning was limited. A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in December cost $87.90 in early trading. That was 17 cents less than the day before. The price for a barrel of the US WTI variety fell by 20 cents to $83.54.
Crude oil from the North Sea has now fallen in price by more than five dollars since Friday. One of the reasons is the delay in the expected Israeli ground offensive in the war against the Islamist Hamas and the hope that the conflict can be prevented from spreading to other countries.