Enlarge image
Bull and Bear in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange:
The Dax is under pressure
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa
Despite predominantly well-received quarterly reports, the
Dax
continued to slide on Wednesday.
In early trading, the leading German index fell by 1.1 percent at times and fell below the 13,600 mark.
Since the beginning of the year, the Dax has lost around 15 percent in value.
According to the quarterly figures from Deutsche Bank, Mercedes-Benz, Puma, the diagnostics service provider Qiagen and the fragrance manufacturer Symrise, the companies affected had predominantly positive price reactions, but the overall market continued to slide.
The
MDax
of medium-sized stocks also came under pressure.
Here, Commerzbank, Software AG and the IT service provider Bechtle came up with good quarterly figures.
The Eurozone leading index
EuroStoxx 50
was on the spot in the morning.
The announcement by Russia that Bulgaria and Poland would no longer receive gas supplies caused uncertainty on the stock exchanges.
The government in Moscow had warned Europe that gas supplies could be interrupted if future payments were not made in rubles.
In the USA, among others, the Facebook mother Meta, the car manufacturer Ford and the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile open their books.
When it comes to economic data, attention is focused on the GfK index, which reflects the purchasing mood of German consumers.
US stock markets slide
On Wall Street, stock prices slipped significantly into the red on Tuesday, led by very weak technology stocks.
The renewed sell-off was justified, among other things, by the nervousness of investors before the quarterly figures of some of the world's largest technology groups were due to be published after the stock market closed.
Persistent fears of inflation, the rigid Covid-19 policy in China and the ongoing war in Ukraine also had a negative impact.
The leading index , the
Dow Jones Industrial
, accelerated its descent again shortly before the close of trading and closed down 2.4 percent at 33,240.2 points.
That was the lowest level since mid-March.
The market-wide
S&P 500
lost 2.8 percent to 4175.20 points.
The tech-heavy
Nasdaq 100
plummeted to its lowest level since May 2021, ultimately falling 3.9 percent to 13,009.7 points.
Asian equity markets under pressure
The global sell-off on stock markets continued on Wednesday on stock markets in Asia.
The reasons for the recent price declines "were more harsh words from Russia about Ukraine and the announcement that Bulgaria and Poland will stop receiving gas supplies from Russia starting today," analysts at ING wrote in a note.
According to the European network, the transmission system operator Russia turned off the gas supply to Poland on Wednesday night.
The government in Moscow had warned Europe that gas supplies could be interrupted if future payments were not made in rubles.
The Nikkei
index, which comprises 225 values,
was 1.9 percent lower at 26,199 points.
The broader
Topix
index fell 1.3 percent to 1853 points.
Bitcoin buckles
The world's best-known digital currency, Bitcoin, is also under pressure.
Bitcoin recently lost more than 5 percent in value and is currently trading at $38,430.
Oil prices are rising
Oil prices rose only slightly on Wednesday, although the situation in the European gas market continued to deteriorate.
In the morning, a barrel (159 liters) of
Brent
North Sea oil cost 105.36 US dollars.
That was 37 cents more than the day before.
The price of a barrel of
West Texas Intermediate
(WTI) was up 15 cents to $101.85.
Russia plans to stop gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.
Although there are economic links to the oil market, the decision did not initially have a particularly strong impact on the oil market.
Gas can be replaced by crude oil in some areas, but only to a limited extent for technical reasons.
The background to Russia's delivery freeze is the Ukraine war, which led to severe sanctions from mostly Western countries.
One reason why the impact of the Russian move on the crude oil market has initially remained limited may lie in China.
There, the government's strict corona measures are causing a significant economic burden.
Demand for oil, petrol and diesel is also likely to suffer under the strict zero-Covid policy.
China is one of the largest energy consumers in the world.
With news agencies