Significant gains in auto stocks such as Porsche, VW and Mercedes as well as solid guidance from the USA pushed the Dax on Thursday. The leading German index recently rose by 0.6 percent to 23,845 points. The MDax of medium-sized German stocks was up 0.7 percent at 29,522 points. The Eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 gained half a percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial in particular had gained the evening before and had come close to November’s record high. There is also a tailwind Japan, where the Nikkei index rose sharply. Investors are still betting on an interest rate cut in the USA next week.
Porsche, VW and Mercedes at the top of the Dax: End of combustion engines?
There were price gains primarily in the auto sector. Investors are betting that the EU will withdraw or at least postpone its regulations on the planned phase-out of combustion engines from 2035. That would be an important success for the German car lobby. According to industry circles, the EU Commission will probably present its proposed change to the CO2 fleet limits later than originally planned. The proposal was actually supposed to be presented on December 10th. EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas already hinted this week that Brussels would most likely overturn the “phasing out of combustion engines” in 2035. “We are open to all technologies,” Tzitzikostas told the “Handelsblatt” in the best Oliver Zipse manner. Mercedes boss Ola Källenius (56) recently lobbied particularly loudly for this. Finally, Chancellor Friedrich Merz wrote not an incendiary letter, but a burning letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. For German manufacturers, a backpedaling by the Commission would be a big Christmas present. Bank of America also took a more positive stance on Mercedes-Benz shares just in time. The investment bank also upgraded the Porsche Holding’s shares to “Buy” and the shares rose by 3.2 percent.
Siemens Energy and SAP asked
Analysts’ assessments in particular moved prices. Siemens Energy rose 2.6 percent, driven by an upgrade to overweight by JPMorgan. Commerzbank gained 2 percent, here Goldman Sachs canceled the sell vote. A positive comment from JPMorgan sent SAP shares up 1 percent.
The Aurubis shares, which have recently performed well, rose by a further 0.7 percent according to the copper producer’s business figures for the 2024/25 financial year.
Recovery rally in New York continues
In the USA, the focus was on economic data, which did not change the overall picture of the interest rate cut expected by the US Federal Reserve next week. After an initially slow start, the latest recovery rally continued a little further.
At 47,882 points, the Dow Jones Industrial crossed the finish line, up 0.9 percent. Its return to close to the 48,000 point mark brought Wall Street’s leading index to its highest level since mid-November. Other indices couldn’t quite keep up, but they also reached their highest levels in around three weeks: the market-wide S&P 500 ended up with an increase of 0.30 percent to 6,849 points. The Nasdaq 100, which recently performed better, made it into the profit zone with 0.2 percent. He finished with 25,606 points.
The trend was mixed among the seven most important tech companies in the USA. The biggest winner among these was Tesla continued its recovery with an increase of around 4 percent. The impetus was given by a report that US President Donald Trump is considering an executive order on robotics solutions next year. Analyst Dan Levy from Barclays drew positive conclusions for the electric car manufacturer, which is also establishing a foothold in the field of humanoid robots.
Tesla stood Microsoft compared with a discount of 2.5 percent. A report about more cautious growth targets in the AI business had a negative impact. The news portal “The Information” reported that the software company has lowered expectations regarding spending by business customers on the marketplace for AI models and AI agents in the cloud division.
Japan rally also gives the Dax a tailwind
The Japanese leading index Nikkei 225 rose by 2.3 percent to 51,028 points. An auction of 30-year government bonds was met with the strongest demand since 2019. In recent weeks, concerns about interest rate hikes in Japan have driven up bond yields, further weighing on the stock market.
Ukraine attack on pipeline causes oil prices to rise
Oil prices are rising. A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent rose in price by 0.4 percent to $62.89. US oil WTI was 0.4 percent higher at $59.21.
Oil prices rose after the Ukraine attacked the Russian Druzhba pipeline on Wednesday. According to Ukrainian military sources, the attack hit the pipeline in the central Russian region of Tambov. It was the fifth attack on the pipeline that transports Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. However, the pipeline operator and Hungary’s oil company said deliveries were continuing as normal. Also the stalled peace talks between the USA and Russia supported prices.