S The high level of losses on automotive stocks and Beiersdorf shares pushed the German stock market down sharply on Thursday. The F.A.Z. Index, which is 100 times broader in the market, yields 0.92 percent to 2450 points. The default Dax index yielded 0.85 percent to 12,587 points.
The prices also fell in New York. By the close in Europe, the Dow Jones lost about 0.6 percent. “Today’s profit warning from Daimler could only be the beginning in a chain of negative effects of the trade dispute on the global economy, so the fear on the stock market,” said market analyst Jochen Stanzl from online broker CMC Markets.
The automaker expects that the announced higher import tariffs in China on imports from the United States could depress sales and profit contribution of Mercedes-Benz SUVs. Daimler shares fell 4.3 percent to a two-year low of 57.84 euros. Experts fear other car makers might soon follow suit and lower their forecasts. In any case, the industry after the arrest of the boss of the VW subsidiary Audi in the wake of the diesel affair this week in turmoil. “We do not think Daimler remains the only automaker to lower its outlook,” said Morgan Stanley analysts.
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Meanwhile, the Swiss bank UBS has left the classification for Daimler at “Buy” with a price target of 92 euros. Analyst Patrick Hummel expects an approximately 5 to 7 percent lower estimate for the operating profit. The earnings momentum should remain rather meager in the coming quarters. However, the biggest price driver remains the valuation imagination from spin-offs such as that of the truck business in the coming year.
EU warns against comprehensive trade war
BMW announced that it would examine its strategic options. The shares of BMW, Volkswagen and the tire manufacturer Continental each lost about three percent. Some automotive suppliers were under even more pressure. Thus, the papers of the headlight manufacturer Hella in the M-Dax fell by over five percent. The shares of foreign competitors such as Peugeot in Paris and Ford, GM and Tesla in New York lost two to three percent.
On Friday, retaliatory tariffs on US imports into the EU will come into effect. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström warned against a “comprehensive trade war” that could plunge the entire global economy into the black, while US Trade Minister Wilbur Ross defended the strategy of using new tariffs to put pressure on trading partners. in which it is more painful for the other countries to stick to trade barriers than to dismantle them, he told the CNBC television station.
Even more than Daimler & Co caught it in the Dax Beiersdorf: The shares of the cosmetics company plummeted by 5.6 percent to 93.90 euros. CEO Stefan Heidenreich, who had led the company from record to record in recent years, is leaving the company. The Supervisory Board agreed “amicably” with him on the termination of the Executive Board mandate by 31 December 2019 at the latest.
Analysts discovered that recently the contract of CFO Jesper Andersen was surprisingly not renewed. This increases the uncertainty not only regarding the future management team, but also the medium-term strategy, the analysts of Baader Helvea stated.