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Bull and bear in Frankfurt:
Share prices are likely to rise on Friday
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa
At the end of the stock market week, the Dax will start higher on Friday, according to calculations by banks and brokerage houses.
On Thursday it had lost 1.4 percent to 16,052 points due to speculation that US monetary policy would be tightened more aggressively.
The main focus is on US labor market data. If, like the figures from the private employment agency ADP, they turn out to be better than expected, this would fuel speculation that the central bank will raise interest rates more quickly. Experts anticipate the creation of 400,000 jobs outside of agriculture in December, around twice as many as in the previous month.
The job data push the other economic data such as the European inflation rate or economic confidence in the euro area into the background.
According to analysts, the former will weaken to 4.7 percent year-on-year.
Economic confidence is likely to decline slightly to 116 points.
Independently of this, the federal and state governments are advising on the fight against the Omikron variant of the coronavirus.
Among other things, further contact restrictions and a tightening of the mask requirement are planned.
Wall Street closes slightly in the red
The mood on New York's Wall Street has clouded over after a strong start to the year.
Details from the central bank minutes had already resulted in a weak close of trading on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial lost another 0.5 percent to 36,236.5 points.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1 percent to 4696.1 meters.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 closed almost unchanged at 15,765.4 points, but has lost 3.4 percent since the beginning of the year.
Asia's stock exchanges on the move
Asian markets bounced back from their two-day losses on Friday and are up.
Investors initially waited to see whether the US labor market data due later in the day would necessitate a faster hike in US interest rates.
"A major market driver this week was the rise in US yields after the Federal Reserve's minutes were released for December," said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.
Minutes indicated that a tight labor market and sustained inflation could force the Federal Reserve to hike rates more sharply this year.
Bitcoin continues to slide, Ether plunges to a three-month low
For Bitcoin & Co, on the other hand, things continued to decline at the end of the week: The largest and oldest cyber currency lost up to five percent on Friday night to $ 40,959, marking its lowest level in more than three months.
Ethereum also fell by almost 9 percent to a three-month low of $ 3,129.
The war of faith in the crypto scene is also going on between the two currencies Bitcoin and Ether.
Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin and Ethereum have already fallen by around ten and 14 percent respectively.
Since the high in early November, Bitcoin has even lost more than a third of its value within eight weeks.
Investors had recently withdrawn from risky investments such as cryptocurrencies for fear of rapidly rising interest rates in the US.
Oil prices are increasing
Oil prices rose on Friday.
A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost US $ 82.69 that morning.
That was 70 cents more than the day before.
The price of a barrel of the American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 72 cents to $ 80.18.
On Thursday, the price of US oil was around three percent and that of Brent oil by more than two percent.
In the market, reference was made, among other things, to the unrest in the producing country of Kazakhstan.
In the meantime, Russia has relocated soldiers to the Central Asian state.
Internationally, there is growing concern about a further escalation.
According to estimates by raw material experts at Commerzbank, Kazakhstan has an oil production of 1.6 million barrels per day.
The country is also one of the most important producers of uranium for nuclear power plants.
With news agencies
