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First down:
At the start of the week
traders predict losses for the Dax
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
The Dax started May with losses on Monday.
After the last week, which was ultimately quite stable, the leading German index fell by 0.56 percent to 14,018 points in the first few minutes of Xetra trading, but then slipped to 13,955 points by 9:22 a.m.
The MDax of medium-sized stocks fell by 0.42 percent to 29,967 points.
The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 lost 1.3 percent.
In view of the weak specifications of the New York Stock Exchange, traders had expected significantly higher losses in the morning.
In the previous week, the Dax had at times approached 13,500 points before it managed to recover noticeably.
Nevertheless, a loss of a good two percent remained for April.
"The fact that May of all times is beginning now, which is preceded by a particularly bad reputation, is certainly not helpful," explained market expert Thomas Altmann from asset manager QC Partners.
In the USA, the most important indices had dived deep again before the weekend.
On the Nasdaq technology exchange, the Nasdaq 100 selection index fell to its lowest level since March 2021 after its weakest month since 2008.
The focus of investors this week is on the US Federal Reserve's key interest rate decision on Wednesday with the continuation of the interest rate turnaround.
Following the recent clear signals from the Fed given the high level of inflation, the market is expecting a steeper interest rate hike of 0.5 percentage points.
Higher interest rates tend to weigh on the stock market.
Despite high fluctuations for the time being, more robust companies should be able to deliver more consistent and stronger results, wrote Matthew Benkendorf, investment strategist at Vontobel Quality Growth, with reference to the course of the current reporting season and the coming quarterly reports.
Quality companies with high margins could absorb cost increases and inflation, Benkendorf said.
The shares of the Adler Group
are under strong pressure on the German stock market
.
The real estate group had already announced on Friday evening that the auditor KPMG would not be able to issue an audit opinion for the consolidated and individual financial statements for 2021 after the end of the audit.
The annual figures, which Adler nevertheless presented on Saturday and revealed a loss of a good one billion euros due to depreciation, should probably only be of secondary importance for investors.
Pre-market on Tradegate, the shares plummeted by 38 percent to the Xetra close.
The Adler debacle is also likely to weigh on the entire real estate sector, a trader said.
There were also quarterly figures from the automotive supplier
Stabilus
, whose shares were hardly changed on Tradegate before the market.
Stabilus has done better than expected, especially in terms of sales, even if the margins are a little lower than hoped, said a stockbroker.
The latter could trigger profit-taking over time, he cautioned.
Nordex
fell on Tradegate by 1.7 percent before the Xetra close.
Market participants justified this with the cut sales and margin targets of Danish wind power competitor Vestas./
Bitcoin falls below $39,000
The world's best-known digital currency, Bitcoin, was listed on the Bitstamp trading platform on Monday morning (CET) just under $39,000.
The cryptocurrency has been under pressure since the beginning of the year.
Bitcoin hit a record high of $69,000 in November last year.
Oil prices start the week at a discount
Oil prices started the new trading week on Monday with discounts.
A burden came from the rising US dollar, which made oil more expensive for investors outside the dollar zone.
In the morning, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost $106.02.
That was $1.12 less than Friday.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grade fell $1.02 to $103.67.
Oil prices have been hovering around the $100 mark for some time.
While the Brent price is mostly well above the mark, the WTI price is moving at a slightly lower level.
Compared to the beginning of the year, prices have risen by a good 35 percent, which is mainly due to the Ukraine war.
Even before the Russian invasion, crude oil prices had risen significantly.
The scarce supply, which is due in particular to severe sanctions against Russia, primarily by Western countries, is providing a general boost.
China's corona policy, on the other hand, is tending to have a negative impact, with strict containment measures causing economic strain and lower demand for crude oil.
Nikkei closes slightly higher ahead of bank holiday
Investors are reluctant to invest in the Tokyo Stock Exchange ahead of a series of bank holidays in Japan.
The
Nikkei
index rose 0.2 percent to 26,890 points on Monday.
Investors may be delayed in reacting to the Fed's interest rate decision because the Japanese stock market will remain closed for the next three days, said Shoichi Arisawa, senior analyst at brokerage house IwaiCosmo.
"In addition, after this series of public holidays, important economic data will come out of the USA."
This makes investment decisions difficult.
With news agencies