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Trembling curve of the Dax: After its recent price slide, the Dax is turning slightly into the plus.
The Fed's rate hike tonight appears to be priced in by now
Photo: DANIEL ROLAND / AFP
Recovery attempt: The
Dax
reduced its initial losses on Wednesday morning and even turned positive by the afternoon.
At the close of trading on Xetra (5:30 p.m.), the Dax was up 0.8 percent at 12,768 points.
The daily low was 12,520 points in the morning.
Uncertainty is not only caused by the US interest rate decision expected for 8 p.m. CET in the evening, but also by the fact that Russia's dictator Vladimir Putin has ordered a partial mobilization of his own armed forces.
The EuroStoxx 50 closed slightly higher.
The MDax also made it into the profit zone in the middle of the week - the index for medium-sized companies increased by 0.62 percent to 23,908.00 points.
In the US, the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were both up 0.5 percent in early trading.
On the stock exchange it is considered certain that the central bank Fed will raise its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points for the third time in a row in the evening.
Some investors even think a move of a full percentage point is possible.
The decision will be announced at 20:00 CEST.
"Even a historical rate hike of a full percentage point alone would probably not trigger a crash on the stock market tomorrow," said investment strategist Jürgen Molnar from the brokerage house RoboMarkets.
"The facts created in this way could even trigger a small rally."
Experts consider the monetary policy outlook of the US Federal Reserve to be almost more important than the interest rate decision itself.
"The Fed needs to at least clarify the conditions needed to slow the pace of rate hikes to 50 basis points," said economist Blerina Uruci of wealth manager T.Rowe Price.
The state takes over almost 99 percent of Uniper
The focus remains on the energy crisis.
Germany's largest gas importer, Uniper, is now being nationalized: As it became apparent the day before, the federal government wants to buy all shares owned by the parent company Fortum for EUR 1.70 each.
A capital increase of 8 billion euros at this price is also planned.
Uniper went out of trading the day before at EUR 4.18, which was significantly higher.
Uniper shares fell by around 18 percent to EUR 3.39 in the morning.
Defense stocks in demand
The announcement of the partial mobilization of Russia by President Vladimir Putin gives arms stocks a boost throughout Europe.
Hensoldt
titles are up
more than 8 percent,
Rheinmetall
are up 7 percent.
Italian group Leonardo, French defense and technology group
Thales
, Swedish firm
SAAB
and Britain's largest defense company
BAE Systems
are up between 4 and 6 percent.
A trader spoke of "winds of war" driving the sector.
Deutsche Post
shares
initially fell 3.3%, but were recently able to reduce their losses to 2.4% or EUR 32.31.
The shares are being downgraded to "neutral" from a previous "buy" by Goldman analysts, a trader said.
Euro continues to weaken against the dollar
The euro came under pressure on Wednesday as Russian action intensified in the war against Ukraine.
The European common currency last cost 0.9895 US dollars.
Before the partial mobilization in Russia, the euro was quoted at $0.9970.
The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 0.9906 (Tuesday: 0.9986) dollars.
The dollar thus cost 1.0095 (1.0014) euros.
The dollar, the main reserve currency, rose after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilization over the Ukraine war.
At the same time, Putin announced that he would support "referendums" in the occupied territories of Ukraine on joining Russia.
As a result, the already poor relations between Russia and the West are likely to deteriorate further.
Easy gains in the US
Wall Street prices edged up slightly in early trading.
The leading index
Dow Jones Industrial
was last up 0.47 percent at 30,850 points.
The market-wide
S&P 500
climbed 0.47 percent to 3874 points.
The technology index
Nasdaq 100
rose by 0.5 percent to 11,903 points.
In terms of individual values, General Mills benefited from the food company's higher targets for the current year.
The price rose by almost six percent to a record level.
After the partial mobilization of the Russian armed forces, US defense stocks were in demand.
Stocks from Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies gained between one and three percent.
Sotera Health shares fell another nine percent.
The service provider for the health and pharmaceutical industry lost a legal dispute over possible carcinogenic emissions from one of its facilities.
The company, which has to pay those affected around 345 million dollars, appealed.
The day before, Sotera Health shares had fallen by double digits.
Bitcoin is hovering around the $19,000 mark
Because of the prospect of drastic interest rate hikes by the major central banks, investors are still holding back on risky asset classes such as cryptocurrencies.
The world's best-known digital currency, Bitcoin, was recently listed on the Bitstamp trading platform at $19,329.
Oil prices more stable again
After the previous day's losses, oil prices started the trading day with a slight plus.
Most recently, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost $90.86, slightly more than the previous evening.
The price of a barrel of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grade rose 16 cents to $84.10.
Oil prices have been under pressure for some time on expectations of weak performance in many major economies.
In the past few days, however, the descent has stopped and prices seem to have bottomed out.
Most recently, the Brent price was just above the $90 mark.
For comparison: in mid-June it was still more than 120 dollars.
The high for the year was just under 140 dollars at the beginning of March, i.e. shortly after Russia attacked the Ukraine.
The WTI looks similar.
It fell from around $120 in mid-June to $84 most recently.
With news agencies