FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Tariff concerns amid the dispute over Greenland cast a shadow over the start of the week on the German stock market. The DAX slipped back below the symbolic 25,000-point mark. U.S. President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that, due to the Greenland dispute, punitive tariffs of 10 percent would apply to eight European countries starting February 1, with tariffs rising to 25 percent from June 1.
As a result, the German benchmark index fell by as much as 1.5 percent to around 24,919 points in the first minutes of trading. For the previous week as a whole, the DAX had managed only a slight gain, after briefly hitting a new high of 25,507 points and continuing its record rally from the start of the year.
The MDAX of mid-cap stocks dropped 1.4 percent on Monday to 24,447 points, while the eurozone blue chip index EuroStoxx 50 lost as much as 1.6 percent. It, too, had set records in the previous week.
The U.S. tariffs are to remain in place until an agreement is reached on the purchase of Greenland by the United States. Eight European NATO countries, including Germany, are affected by the tariffs. EU Council President António Costa will now convene a special EU summit, possibly on Thursday.
"For now, it's still rhetoric. There are still two weeks left for negotiations," commented portfolio manager Thomas Altmann of QC Partners. However, he warned of an unprecedented spiral of tariffs, counter-tariffs, and further measures. Unlike in previous cases, the European Union is unlikely to back down this time, Altmann suspects. In any case, the stock market rally has come to a halt for now, even if the setback remains manageable for the time being.
Bayer bucked the weak market trend, posting significant gains of 7 percent after positive news from the United States. What investors had been hoping for since at least early December 2025 has now happened: late Friday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the glyphosate case "Durnell." This increases the chances of a landmark ruling in the long-running, burdensome legal dispute over the weedkiller.
In early December, the so-called Solicitor General – a kind of attorney general for the U.S. government – supported the company's request for the "Durnell" case to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. At that time, the shares climbed above 35 euros for the first time since early 2024. Since then, they have extended their recovery rally by another 27 percent, and the bottoming out after years of price declines is becoming increasingly stable./ag/jha/
