The increasing hopes of interest rate cuts brought further price gains to the Dax on Monday. At the end of trading, the leading German index was 0.96 percent higher at 18,175.21 points. This puts him well away from the 18,000 point mark. However, it did not manage to overcome the previous week's high of almost 18,236 points.
“For the overall technical weather situation to improve, the Dax must first establish itself above 18,200 points again,” wrote CMC Markets expert Jochen Stanzl. However, there was a lack of sufficiently strong impulses for this on Monday. There was no trading on the important London market due to the holiday, and there was no news from companies that significantly moved prices. The reporting season only accelerates again on Tuesday and Wednesday. The MDax of medium-sized companies ultimately rose by 1.01 percent to 26,567.44 points at the beginning of the week.
Economic data from the Eurozone proved to be a support for the price. Producer prices continued to fall in March. The decline weakened again. But because of falling inflation, the financial markets are expecting the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut interest rates for the first time in June. April data shows a further improvement in corporate and economic sentiment. After a weak labor market report from the United States was announced on Friday, a number of investors were now pricing in a first interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve in September instead of in November, as was previously the case, the market said.
The most important stock indices in Europe also continued to rise thanks to interest rate hopes. The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 closed 0.7 percent higher. Things also went up in Paris, while there was no trading in London due to the public holiday. The New York leading index Dow Jones Industrial was only just up at the end of European trading, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index advanced by 0.6 percent.
Insurer shares were in demand on the German market at the beginning of the week. Munich Re and Talanx took top positions in their indices with price recoveries of 2.9 and 2.8 percent respectively. Infineon stocks were also among the biggest winners on the day before the quarterly report, up 2.5 percent. The chip company announced a partnership with the Chinese technology group Xiaomi.
Shares from DHL and RWE, on the other hand, were visually weak at the end of the Dax as they were traded without the dividends distributed.
In the SDax small cap index, Varta was one of the best stocks with a recovery of a further 4.6 percent. This meant that for the first time in almost four weeks, the shares of the struggling battery manufacturer made it back above the 21-day line, which is considered an important short-term trend indicator. The fact that the manager Michael Ostermann became the new CEO hardly played a role - even before the news, the shares had temporarily been trading significantly higher.
Borussia Dortmund shareholders were pleased with a share price increase of 2.4 percent. The football club recently made more positive sporting headlines again with a possible entry into the Champions League final. At the weekend there was an easy 5-1 win in the Bundesliga against FC Augsburg.
The euro continued its upward trend and was last trading at $1.0778. The ECB had previously set the reference rate at $1.0776.
On the German bond market, the current yield fell from 2.58 percent on Friday to 2.50 percent. The Rex bond index rose by 0.39 percent to 124.59 points. The Bund future gained 0.21 percent to 131.30 points.
