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Traders on the stock exchange: Dax and Bitcoin dive again.
On the "Witches' Sabbath", the big expiry day on the futures markets, prices usually fluctuate greatly
Photo: AP
The price slide continues: Before the big expiry date, the Dax continued its recent descent on Friday.
The renewed losses on Wall Street, which recorded renewed losses, especially in technology stocks, weighed on the previous evening.
The leading German index, the Dax, fell another 1.2 percent to 12,781 points in early trading on Friday.
It is thus only just above its low for the year of 12,567 points.
The leading eurozone index, the EuroStoxx 50, started with significant losses, as did the MDax.
Some positive economic data from China, where retail and industry have recently developed unexpectedly well, would hardly be rewarded on the market, according to stockbrokers.
The oil processing industry of the world's largest oil importer remained under pressure.
In addition, concerns about high inflation and fears of an economic downturn continue to accompany trade activity, as does the question of the future monetary policy of the central banks.
With the looming losses, the Dax is once again heading for a weak week after the leading German index had risen significantly to an interim high of 13,564 points on Tuesday.
But the previous recovery had quickly collapsed with the shock of stubborn US inflation.
The approaching elections in Italy, where the right-wing populists are expected to win, are proving to be an additional burden.
Investors are now nervous about the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision next Wednesday.
A drastic interest rate hike of at least 0.75 percentage points is expected from the monetary authorities of the Fed, but more and more are also speculating about a key rate hike of a full percentage point.
Before the weekend, however, things could get interesting again because of the great decline on the futures exchanges.
There are often major price fluctuations here because some investors try to drive prices in a direction that is favorable for them.
According to portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from QC Partners, the main focus here is on the expiry of the options on the Dax.
"The 13,000 mark was recently the hard-fought mark between bulls and bears. With today's expiry date, the options market could have a say in the future direction of the Dax," explains the stock market expert.
Nasdaq collapses again
The US stock exchanges fell again on Thursday after only tentatively stabilizing the day before.
US economic data presented a mixed picture and gave investors no reason to change their risk aversion.
High inflation, future interest rates and the economic consequences remain decisive.
Nervousness may also have prevailed ahead of Friday's major downturn on the futures markets.
Growth-sensitive technology stocks, which had recovered somewhat more sharply the day before, came under particular pressure.
The Nasdaq 100
selection index, which is characterized by this industry,
fell by 1.71 percent to 11,927 points.
It thus reached its lowest level since mid-July.
While the market-wide
S&P 500
also fell quite significantly by 1.13 percent to 3901 points, the losses in the
Dow Jones Industrial
were somewhat smaller.
The Wall Street course barometer lost 0.56 percent to 30,961 points.
However, the Dow also had to accept the next low since July during the course of the day.
Numerous economic data were published on Thursday, which were mixed on balance.
While a regional sentiment indicator from the state of New York surprised positively, the industrial mood in the Philadelphia area disappointed with a significant downturn.
However, particular attention was paid to retail sales, which increased in August compared to the previous month.
However, they are down excluding volatile auto sales.
Adobe with price slide
On the corporate side, Adobe investors didn't like the software company's plans to acquire web design software company Figma.
The willingness to pay around 20 billion US dollars for it triggered a price slump of 16.8 percent.
Analysts described the price as high.
Kirk Materne from the analysis company Evercore ISI suspected that the reason Adobe wanted to avoid with the takeover was that Figma would become a strong opponent.
Recession fears weigh on Asian stock exchanges
Asian markets were weaker on Friday as investors brace for a US interest rate hike in the coming week and mounting concerns of a global recession following warnings from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
"Equities and other risk-sensitive markets are struggling as it becomes clear that inflationary pressures in the US are entrenched and risks to interest rates are tilted to the upside," economists at ANZ said on Friday.
The Tokyo stock exchange was weaker on Friday.
The Nikkei Index, which comprises 225 stocks, was 1.1 percent lower at 27,583 points.
The broader
Topix index
fell 0.7 percent to 1,938 points.
The
Shanghai
stock exchange was down 0.8 percent.
The index of the most important companies in
Shanghai and Shenzhen
lost 1.2 percent.
Bitcoin falls back below $20,000
The digital currency Bitcoin fell below the $20,000 mark again on Friday night.
Most recently, the cyber currency was listed on the Bitstamp trading platform at 19,782 US dollars, almost 2 percent weaker than the previous day.
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 rise slightly
Oil prices rose slightly on Friday.
A barrel (159 liters) of the North Sea Brent was traded at a price of 91.23 US dollars.
That was 39 cents more than the day before.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 26 cents to $85.36.
The prices recovered somewhat from their discounts of the previous evening.
Despite the slight gains, oil prices are heading for their third straight weekly loss.
The cooling global economy and the strong US dollar, which makes oil more expensive for traders from other currency areas, remain negative issues.
That depends on the demand.
With news agencies