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Trader in the Deutsche Börse:
The Dax has come under pressure
Photo: JIM URQUHART / REUTERS
Losses on the stock market: At its high level, the Dax showed itself to be susceptible to profit-taking on Thursday.
The leading German index increased its losses to just under 1 percent by the afternoon.
After an hour of trading, the MDax was around half a percent in the red at 31,310 points and the Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 also came under pressure.
While the oil price rose sharply due to the blockade of the Suez Canal, investors also took profits in the crypto currency Bitcoin: Bitcoin temporarily lost more than 10 percent on Thursday and threatens to fall below the 50,000 US dollar mark.
The Dax is led by Eon from the European utility industry with a price increase of 3 percent.
With 14,804 points, the Dax had reached a new record a week ago, driven by immensely strong car values, and thus amassed a profit of almost 8 percent for this year.
Corona worries in particular have slowed down since then.
The Robert Koch Institute reported 22,657 new corona infections within 24 hours.
That is 5,153 more than on Thursday a week ago, and it is also the largest increase since January 9th.
The seven-day incidence rose to 113.3 from 108.1 on Wednesday.
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In addition, the important waterway, the Suez Canal, is still blocked by a 400-meter-long container ship.
Efforts to free the ship were resumed on Thursday at high tide.
Five tugs were working to pull the ship into deeper water, according to the ship's tracking.
Around 10 percent of world trade today goes through the Suez Canal.
With the ship tracker from "Vesselfinder" you can follow the rescue attempts live on the internet.
Bitcoin plunges towards $ 50,000
Bitcoin has not yet been able to benefit sustainably from its acceptance as a means of payment by the electric car manufacturer Tesla.
On Thursday, the largest cryptocurrency by market value fell by more than 10 percent and threatens to drop below the round mark of $ 50,000.
Most recently, a Bitcoin cost $ 50,700.
The day before, the rate had risen to around $ 57,000.
The trigger was the announcement from Tesla boss Elon Musk that the electric car manufacturer is now accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment - so you can now pay for your Tesla with Bitcoin.
While that was just confirmation of an earlier announcement, Bitcoin rose.
From its record high of just over 61,000 dollars, reached in mid-March, the Bitcoin rate is now well behind.
In a year-on-year comparison, however, there is a strong increase in value of around 700 percent.
The main reason for the steep increase is the greater interest shown by business and investors in the digital currency.
Adidas at the lowest level for seven weeks
Meanwhile, things went significantly downwards for Adidas - 4 percent minus and the lowest level in seven weeks were on the price board.
A storm of indignation by Chinese Internet users against the US sporting goods manufacturer Nike also made the German sporting goods manufacturer difficult.
Nike had drawn the annoyance of Chinese social media users by distancing itself from labor camps in China.
The sporting goods manufacturer wrote on the Twitter-like platform Weibo that the company was "concerned" about reports of forced labor in Xinjiang and that it would not use cotton from the region.
Beijing then called for foreigners not to be able to tarnish China's name.
According to business figures, Aroundtown in the MDax similarly went to their knees.
The landlord of office, hotel and commercial real estate failed to meet expectations, wrote Jefferies analyst Thomas Rothäusler in an initial reaction.
Meanwhile, Zooplus shot up 13 percent in the SDax.
The online retailer and Corona winner promised a high rate of growth for the coming years.
CEO
Cornelius Patt
wants to roughly double sales by 2025.
At the same time, profitability should also be increased somewhat.
Dow gives up profits - Nasdaq deep red
Investors in the US stock market were ultimately afraid of their own courage on Wednesday.
The leading index Dow Jones gradually gave up its gains in the last two hours of trading and in the end barely moved with a minus of 0.01 percent to 32,420.06 points.
The S&P 500, which was also friendly for a long time, closed 0.55 percent lower at 3889.14 points.
The technology-heavy selection index Nasdaq 100 even fell by 1.68 percent to 12,798.88 points.
It had already paid tribute to its recently above-average development, with which it has made up some of its deficit on the two standard value indices since the beginning of the year.
On Tuesday, the New York stock exchanges also came under pressure late and went out of trading with losses.
Oil prices with strong fluctuations
Oil prices fell significantly on Thursday.
The up and down trend in prices has thus continued since the beginning of the week.
After oil prices made up for the sharp drop on Tuesday on Wednesday, they came under noticeable selling pressure again in the morning.
A barrel (159 liters) of Brent North Sea oil cost $ 63.15.
That was $ 1.26 less than the previous day.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) branded American crude fell $ 1.25 to $ 59.93.
On Wednesday, oil prices rose sharply due to the blockade in the Suze Canal.
A considerable part of the energy transport from the Middle East to Europe and the USA runs through the canal.
Deliveries from the North Sea to Asia are also affected in the opposite direction.
Euro hardly changed
The euro moved little on Thursday.
This means that the price losses of the past two trading days have not continued for the time being.
In the morning the common currency was traded at 1.1817 US dollars, almost at the same rate as the previous evening.
The European Central Bank (ECB) last set the reference rate on Wednesday afternoon at $ 1.1825.
Market watchers spoke of an impulsive morning in the forex market.
In the middle of the week, unexpectedly strong economic data from the euro zone had supported the common currency after it had previously come under pressure due to the strength of the dollar.
The latest development of the corona crisis remains a determining topic on the foreign exchange market.
According to experts, the continued sluggish course of the corona vaccinations in Europe is likely to weigh on the euro in the coming trading days.
Positive impulses can only be expected if a significantly faster vaccination rate becomes apparent, which would bring an end to the pandemic closer, said analyst Thu Lan Nguyen from Commerzbank.
with news agencies