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No reason to be happy: In 2022, the Dax was worse than it had been in four years
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / picture alliance / dpa
The Dax fell below 14,000 points again on the last trading day of the year.
At lunchtime on Friday, the German stock exchange barometer was down 0.76 percent to 13,965 points with very low trading volume.
This puts the Dax back below the psychologically important mark around which it has been hovering for two weeks.
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange closes at 2 p.m. on the last trading day of the year.
The current weekly balance means a small plus for the Dax, for the month of December there is currently a minus of almost three percent.
Calculated over the year, the Dax is heading for a loss of almost twelve percent and thus the worst stock market year in four years.
The trigger was Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.
Energy prices skyrocketed, fueling violent inflation that required central bank intervention.
As a result, interest rates rose rapidly and significantly.
In 2021, the leading German index had posted a gain of almost 16 percent.
The
MDax
of medium-sized companies fell by 0.67 percent to 25,267 points.
The Eurozone leading index
EuroStoxx 50
recently lost 0.80 percent to 3819 points.
Trading volumes also remained very thin.
Fund managers' window dressing
On the corporate side, the price swings were limited.
At best, some "window dressing" was done at the end of the year.
By this, stockbrokers understand purchases of shares that have been particularly good to date or sales of shares that have gone particularly badly in order to look as good as possible in the end-of-year statement.
Dax 2022: Beiersdorf Top, Adidas and Vonovia Flop
It was fitting that Zalando, Adidas and Vonovia, among others, were among the weaker Dax stocks of the day.
Over the year as a whole, these three stocks suffered the largest losses among the Dax members with discounts of up to 52 percent.
The Beiersdorf paper, on the other hand, increased slightly by 0.4 percent at lunchtime and is also one of the favorites for the year as a whole with an increase of almost 20 percent.
Investors on Wall Street take heart again
Investors on the US stock market were no longer discouraged on Thursday: prices recovered noticeably from their recent losses, and the much-battered technology stocks drove this time.
As of Thursday's close, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100
was up 2.54 percent to close at
10,951.05.
The leading index
Dow Jones Industrial
gained 1.05 percent to 33,220.80 points, while the market-wide
S&P 500
rose by 1.75 percent to 3,849.28 points.
The stock market year 2022 is not over yet, but it was very bad for all three indices.
The interest-sensitive technology stocks in particular were badly hit against the background of the central banks raising interest rates sharply.
With a daily high of 123.57 US dollars,
Tesla
shares made up for the losses since the beginning of the week, at the end of trading they still gained 8.1 percent to 121.82 dollars.
In a recent study, analyst Adam Jonas from Morgan Stanley remained optimistic about the electric car manufacturer and sees the recent steep price slide with seven trading days in a row as an opportunity.
In addition to a letter from Elon Musk to Tesla employees, the reason for the attempt to recover is also state subsidies.
With the
promotion of certain electric vehicles from domestic production that will come into force in the USA in 2023
, the vehicle industry as a whole could once again become the focus of investors shortly before the turn of the year.
The subsidies are part of US President Joe Biden's anti-inflation law, which, among other things, provides for billions in investments in climate and environmental protection.
The titles of the smaller competitor Rivian, which had recently been hit even worse than Tesla, rose by more than three percent before the start of trading.
Weak year for stocks in Asia ends on a positive note
Most of the major Asian stock markets gained some ground after the recent losses on Friday.
On the last day of trading, however, investors can look back on a dull stock market year.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine led to an explosion in energy prices and a sharp rise in inflation, which the central banks combated with significant interest rate hikes.
The leading Japanese index , the
Nikkei 225
, ended trading on Friday practically unchanged at 26,094 points.
A price loss of a good 6 percent was recorded for December.
For 2022, the Nikkei recorded a minus of 9.4 percent.
After a three-year winning streak, he has the weakest year since 2018 behind him.
Nevertheless, the Nikkei cuts better than the leading German index Dax.
The domestic central bank shocked investors on December 20 with a surprising change of strategy and once again sent the Nikkei plummeting.
In response to the Bank of Japan's decision to ease the range that governs long-term bond yields, several major Japanese banks have announced increases in their mortgage rates.
The
CSI 300 index
, which includes the top 300 companies in mainland China, rose 0.39 percent to 3871 points.
On the stock exchange of the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong, where many foreign investors also trade, the
Hang Seng index
rose by 0.48 percent to 19,835 points shortly before the end of trading.
An increase of 6.7 percent is emerging for December after the Chinese leadership announced an abrupt end to its controversial zero-Covid policy after almost three years.
The gradual lifting of almost all protective measures in recent weeks has fueled hopes of a recovery in the world's second largest economy.
The price drop of around 15 percent in 2022 not only means the third year of losses in a row, but also the weakest development since 2011.
Bitcoin is trading at $16,500
The world's best-known digital currency, Bitcoin, has continued to soar and was last quoted at 16,500 US dollars on the Bitstamp trading platform in the morning.
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 - slight losses on a weekly basis
Oil prices pared their weekly losses a little further on Friday.
A barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in March cost $83.96 in the morning.
That was 50 cents more than the day before.
The price of a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grade for delivery in February rose 52 cents to $78.91.
Market observers spoke of a comparatively low trading volume shortly before the end of the year.
All in all, oil prices have fallen somewhat since the Christmas holidays after the massive corona wave in China had dampened hopes of a rapid improvement in the economic development of the world's second largest economy and thus of stronger demand for crude oil.
Data on the development of oil reserves in the USA could not weigh on oil prices on the last trading day of the year.
It was announced on Thursday that US crude oil inventories rose by 0.7 million barrels to 419.0 million barrels in the past week.
Analysts, however, had expected a drop of 1.2 million barrels.
With news agencies
