market report
The profit-taking in the well-performing US technology stocks continues. This makes the figures presented by the chip company Nvidia in the evening even more important. The DAX achieved a small plus in advance.
The future will be traded on the stock exchange. However, it is not uncommon for her to get too far ahead of events and have to correct her expectations. An important litmus test as to whether this is currently the case again will take place today after the US stock market closes. Then the Californian chip manufacturer Nvidia will publish its quarterly figures and business outlook. Its chips play an important role in many AI applications – and the stock markets owe a large part of the recent upward movement to the imagination surrounding the topic of AI.
The markets are correspondingly worried about disappointment. The DAX, which had meanwhile broken out somewhat more clearly, ended trading with a modest gain of 0.3 percent.
At least the leading index has not yet jeopardized its upward trend with its recent sideways movement. “As long as the DAX can largely defend the 17,000 point mark, the next target is 17,300 points,” Christian Zoller, chart technology expert at Bank ING, is convinced.
“From a chart perspective, the psychological mark has not yet been significantly defeated,” points out IG analyst Christian Henke. This would only be the case at a closing price above 17,150 points.
A slightly encouraging economic signal came from the Eurozone. According to the latest survey by the EU Commission, consumer sentiment in the euro area improved in February. The barometer for the consumer climate rose by 0.6 points to minus 15.5 points. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected a value of minus 15.6 points. Despite the increase, the barometer remained well below its long-term average. The high cost of living, which eats away at citizens’ purchasing power, is particularly depressing consumer sentiment.
The New York stock exchanges started with discounts, but have now been able to curb their losses somewhat. Two and a half hours after the market opened, the Dow Jones lost 0.1 percent.
Technology stocks are once again under greater pressure, with a loss of over 0.5 percent in the Nasdaq 100. The sector is not only affected by profit-taking at Nvidia, but also by a pessimistic forecast from the US cybersecurity specialist Palo Alto.
Palo Alto shares collapsed by more than 25 percent on Wall Street. This is the largest daily loss in the company’s history. Rivals Fortinet, Zscaler and Crowdstrike lose between six and 15 percent. Palo Alto expects third-quarter revenue to be between $2.30 billion and $2.35 billion. According to LSEG data, analysts on average expected $2.62 billion. Companies’ economy-related savings behavior has recently outweighed their concerns about the risk of online attacks, it said.
Already yesterday, technology stocks in particular that had been doing well recently had been sold. The focus of profit-taking is on Nvidia shares – this could possibly reduce the risk of disappointment after the balance sheet is presented. “Regardless of the initial reaction to the quarterly figures, Nvidia remains one of the fastest-growing companies with one of the highest profit margins in the universe of large companies this year,” emphasized market expert Robert Rethfeld from Wellenreiter-Invest.
Before the Nvidia figures, however, monetary policy first attracts attention – with the minutes of the most recent US Federal Reserve meeting at 8 p.m. CET. The details from this could become important in order to be able to better assess the possibility of interest rate cuts in the near future. Economic data recently has not been conducive to the assumption that this will happen in the near future.
The euro can make up some ground in the run-up to the Fed minutes, most recently at $1.0817. The price of a troy ounce of gold rose by 0.1 percent to $2,025.
Oil prices were able to stabilize somewhat again after further losses in the meantime. A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in April currently costs $82.96, 0.55 percent more than yesterday.
Fresenius shares recorded above-average gains in the DAX. The healthcare group has made further progress in its restructuring and is therefore raising its savings targets. Day-to-day business also went a little better in 2023 than analysts expected, thanks to an unexpectedly good final quarter.
The ver.di union has called on employees at the DHL air freight center in Leipzig to go on a warning strike. The employees should stop working from Thursday at 2 p.m. until Friday morning at 6 a.m. Ver.di is calling for annual vacation to be increased by five days.
In the MDAX, the shares of the North Hesse solar technology provider SMA Solar were among the biggest losers. The background is bad industry news: The US company SolarEdge had given a gloomy outlook and thus clearly missed analysts’ expectations. SolarEdge shares fell more than 14 percent in early U.S. trading.
After the tough warning strike at Lufthansa, negotiations took place again today. In Frankfurt and Berlin, representatives of the ver.di union met with employers from Lufthansa and private aviation security companies. A breakthrough seems possible in both rounds if the talks continue tomorrow.
In the dispute over the future use of important cell phone network frequencies, the company 1&1 sees itself strengthened by an expert opinion. The company from Montabaur today published a report it had commissioned from former constitutional judge Udo Di Fabio, according to which the Federal Network Agency’s previous plan would be unconstitutional.
According to preliminary annual figures, Knaus Tabbert’s paper climbed to its highest level since mid-January. Analyst Martha Ford from Jefferies praised the development in the final quarter, in which the camping vehicle manufacturer’s sales exceeded the already high previous year’s figure and market estimates.
The prospect of a doubled dividend caused CompuGroup shares to recover slightly. The personally liable partner of the software company operating under the legal form SE & Co. KGaA had made a corresponding resolution. CompuGroup is a software provider specializing in medical practices and hospitals.
Thanks to a continued influx of customers, Telefónica Deutschland (O2) achieved another record result in 2023. Last year, 1.3 million new users were added, said the German subsidiary of the Spanish Telefónica group. As a result, sales increased 4.7 percent to 8.614 billion euros and the adjusted operating result increased 3.1 percent to 2.617 billion euros.
Danone plans to sell its dairy and plant-based products business in Russia to a Chechnya-linked businessman, according to a media report. The dairy company Vamin Tatarstan, which belongs to Mintimer Mingasov, has agreed to pay the equivalent of 180 million euros, the Financial Times reported, citing a corresponding letter.
After disappointing figures, investors turned their backs on Glencore. The mining company’s shares fell to a two-year low in London. After two consecutive record years, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) halved to $17.1 billion in 2023. The group also cut its distributions to investors.
The expansion plans for the US electric car manufacturer Tesla’s factory in Grünheide near Berlin were rejected by the majority in a citizen survey. However, the survey is not binding. Tesla wants to gradually increase production in Grünheide and also expand its factory premises. Tesla wants to buy additional space for this purpose.
The trading giant Amazon makes the leap into the stock market Olympus. The stock will be included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on February 26th, index provider S&P Dow Jones Indices announced yesterday evening. The drugstore and pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance has to make way for this. S&P justified the change with the increasing importance of retail for the US economy.
At the British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto, the slow recovery of the Chinese economy from the corona pandemic has put pressure on the balance sheet. The surplus attributable to shareholders fell by 19 percent to just under $10.1 billion last year compared to the same period last year.
The English billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has taken over 27.7 percent of the shares in Manchester United. His entry is now complete. The English football record champions announced yesterday evening that all the necessary approvals from the league and the association were in place. The majority owner of the club, which has been in sporting crisis for a long time, remains the Glazer family from the USA, which is unpopular with many fans.
Shares in the British financial institution HSBC were under significant pressure. Despite an increase of 78 percent, annual profit before taxes was lower than analysts expected. Higher interest income was overshadowed by a $3 billion writedown on its stake in China’s Bank of Communications.