20.05.2019 – Daily report. Hardly any movement on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Monday midday: After the good previous week, investors initially held back in German stock trading. The DAX crumbled. There was no news in the customs dispute between China and the USA. Nerves remain tense in the energy market: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran.
DAX shows itself listless
After a sideways start, the DAX fell by around three-quarters of a percent. Deutsche Bank tested the all-time low of EUR 6.68, which had been marked at the end of December. According to a report in the “New York Times”, executives of the money house are said to have prevented employees from reporting conspicuous transactions in Trump companies and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to the financial supervisory authorities. Deutsche Bank rejected the accusations.
No progress in customs dispute
Many investors now assume that the negotiations between China and the USA have reached a dead end. As expected, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has issued a warning regarding the customs dispute. OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria told CNBC that the conflict is holding back global recovery and jeopardising investment and growth.
Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China has revealed the direction the leadership is taking. The social media blog “What’s on Weibo” reported that CCTV 6, the state broadcaster specializing in films, had broadcast three anti-American movies on the Korean War from the 1950s and 1960s – reaching 500 million people in 23 provinces. This could be dismissed as a tasteless aberration if the editor-in-chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin, had not summed up the purpose of the action: “There are no negotiations between equals without struggle,” wrote the communists’ mouthpiece on Twitter.
Asia without a clear trend
No clear direction for global trading was given by investors in Asia in the morning: The Japanese Nikkei 225 closed 0.2 percent higher at 21,301 points. In Japan, economic growth grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter. In China, on the other hand, the stock market remained subdued: the CSI 300 fell by 0.9 percent to 3,618 points.
New York powerless
Wall Street also lacked energy on Friday. Although the Dow Jones had been trading up for a while, it gave way in late trading and took off into the weekend with a minus of 0.4 percent at 25,764 points. The weekly loss of 0.7 percent is manageable. The S&P 500 had slipped by 0.6 percent to 2860 points on Friday and the Nasdaq 100 lost 1 percent to 7504 positions. The mood of US consumers had improved considerably in May and had risen to its highest level in a good 15 years. The composite index of leading economic indicators of the private research institute Conference Board also improved in April. All data can be found here: Market Mover
Fear of the spark in the oil field
There is still tension on the oil market. US President Trump has threatened Tehran with destruction. On Sunday evening he twittered: “If Iran wants to fight, this is the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again! The price of oil was higher than it has been for three weeks. The trigger was probably the impact of a rocket about 1.6 kilometers away from the American embassy in Baghdad. Previously, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hussein Salami, had ignited the rocket: Although Iran and its Revolutionary Guards did not want war, they would not be afraid of it, he told the semi-state news agency Isna. The US troops were “easy to defeat” because, unlike the Revolutionary Guards, they were afraid of death.
As always, it’s worth keeping an eye on the news. Especially on a day when there are hardly any important scheduled dates. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for April at 2.30 p.m. German time should be highlighted. We wish you a successful week!
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