30 a..m., a rise of roughly 0.9 percent above the previous day’s closing level.
Leading the individual share performance were Siemens, Commerzbank, Deutsche Telekom and Continental; at the bottom of the list were Symrise and Mercedes Benz. The carmaker announced a noticeable decline in profits for the last fiscal year and said it would cut its dividend accordingly.
Andreas Lipkow, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, commented that investors will continue to face a mixture of opposing signals. He noted that the U.S. employment data released on Wednesday are complex and that a detailed analysis is necessary to obtain a coherent picture of the U.S. economy. “Although the jobs numbers were far above expectations, they have been revised several times in recent weeks, each revision often showing a very different picture” Lipkow said. “In that context, the unemployment‑benefit claims due today should become particularly important”.
Lipkow added that Europe appears to be stabilising at a low level of economic activity. He cited numerous quarterly figures-including yesterday’s reports from Siemens Energy and Commerzbank, as well as the figures from Siemens already released today-to illustrate this trend. Nevertheless, he stressed that the economy remains heavily dependent on China and the United States, and that EU defence spending is an additional driver of this economic stability.
The euro was slightly stronger on Thursday morning. One euro was worth 1.1880 U.S. dollars, giving a U.S. dollar an exchange rate of 0.8418 euros.
At the same time, oil prices rose. A barrel of Brent North Sea crude was trading at $69.65 at about 9 a.m. German time, up $0.25 or 0.4 percent from the previous day’s closing price.