After the very weak August, the start of September for the Dax was deep red in view of increasing economic concerns. The leading index fell below 12,700 points to its lowest level since mid-July. Towards the end of the first hour of trading, the Dax lost 1.16 percent to 12,686.12 points. He is losing sight of the last much-noticed mark of 13,000 points, and the low for the year of 12,391 points marked at the beginning of July is getting closer.
With the losses, investors are becoming more concerned that September will live up to its reputation as a rather bad stock market month. The MDax lost even more than the Dax on Thursday with minus 1.85 percent to 24,752.09 points, as did the Eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 with a discount of 1.3 percent.
The mood on the overseas stock exchanges was bad overnight. Weak economic data came out of China with the Caixin index slipping below 50 points, below the expansion threshold. In addition, the Chinese authorities imposed another curfew due to a corona outbreak, this time in the southwest Chinese metropolis of Chengdu. This fuels concerns that the pandemic will once again impact supply chains.
In general, high inflation is currently the main stress factor for the markets. It is pushing the central banks to raise interest rates further, increasing concerns about an economic slowdown or a recession. On the day before the groundbreaking labor market report comes out of the USA, investors are therefore looking more closely at new economic indicators on Thursday - above all the ISM purchasing managers' index for US industry. The economist Jens-Oliver Niklasch from LBBW expects this to fall to 51.8 points.
Sentiment prevailed in the chip sector this morning as the US escalated its dispute with China with new restrictions on the export of high-performance Nvidia chips. The restrictions affect microprocessors, which are primarily required for artificial intelligence applications. This weighed on the shares of the US chip group after the exchange and was also noticeable in the Dax group Infineon with a discount of 1.9 percent. The papers of the industry supplier Aixtron fell by 2.1 percent.
The 2.8 percent weaker shares of Lufthansa were also a big MDax loser. The airline's pilots have decided to go on a day-long strike this Friday. Dealers emphasized that this is not surprising, but still weighs on the mood because of the business losses.
Otherwise, analyst ratings were the focus on Thursday. From JPMorgan, they head in opposite directions for two capital goods companies: Gea was downgraded to underweight by analyst Akash Gupta on anticipation of a slowdown in second-half orders. As a result, the papers slipped by 4.3 percent. For Kion, however, he is optimistic, but the share fell by 1.2 percent.
The shares in Shop Apotheke, which followed the turbulence at competitor Zur Rose at a discount of four percent, were unable to escape the downward spiral. The competitor received less money from capital measures than hoped. The papers fell on the Zurich stock exchange by almost eight percent.
