The Dax index moved slightly into the green area by midday on Friday, after a cautious start to the trading day. By around 12:30 pm, the leading index was calculated at around 20,385 points, 0.3 percent above the previous day’s closing level.
At the top of the stock list, Mercedes-Benz, Bayer, and Continental were again in the lead. On the other hand, the shares of Zalando, Eon, and RWE went down significantly.
“The trading impulses from the Asian market were weaker, and were dominated by concerns about the planned US tariffs and potential interest rate hikes in Japan” said market analyst Andreas Lipkow. “European market participants will focus very strongly on the announcement of the US labor market data today.”
“It is expected that 165,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent in the US will be reported. The University of Michigan’s US consumer confidence index will also attract attention. In the run-up to these data, the European stock markets will tend to be sideways” Lipkow said.
The European common currency was a bit stronger in the afternoon: one euro cost 1.0302 US dollars, and one dollar was worth 0.9707 euros.
Meanwhile, the oil price rose sharply: a barrel of North Sea Brent cost around 12 pm German time on Friday at 78.98 US dollars, which was 2.7 percent more than at the close of the previous trading day.