FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Easy come, easy go: The price recovery on Wednesday was just a day later wastepaper. The Dax lost 1.30 percent to 13,914.07 points on Thursday. Robust economic data from the U.S. "burst into the pre-Christmas positive mood," as analyst Konstantin Oldenburger of broker CMC Markets wrote. The strong labor market in the U.S. and consumers eager to buy despite high prices would argue against the Fed throttling the pace of interest rate hikes.
When prices also tumbled on Wall Street, this further increased the pressure on the Dax in the afternoon. Weekly data from the U.S. labor market had once again underpinned its strength. In the end, the MDax fell by 1.50 percent to 25,105.45 points.
A pessimistic business forecast from U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology weighed on sentiment in the European semiconductor sector. According to Micron, the biggest oversupply in the industry in more than a decade is likely to make it difficult to return to profitability. On the Dax, Infineon lost three percent and on the Euronext stock exchange, ASML and STMicroelectronics also fell significantly.
Automotive stocks were among the biggest losers in the Dax, with Volkswagen, for example, bringing up the rear, losing a good four percent. Porsche AG, Continental, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche Holding fell by 2.4 to 3 percent.
Rheinmetall, on the other hand, continued its recovery after Tuesday's severe setback, gaining 2.4 percent. The defense company, together with Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), plans to repair the defective Puma infantry fighting vehicles over the next two to three weeks. On Tuesday, the problems with the tank had weighed heavily on the Rheinmetall share price, but in the meantime the share price losses have been ironed out.
The shares of fuel cell manufacturer SFC Energy, which will be promoted to the SDax small-cap index on December 27, rose 1.7 percent. In return, the shares of gas importer Uniper had to leave the index following its nationalization. Uniper fell 5.5 percent.
The wholesaler Metro sells its Indian business to the local retail giant Reliance. The separation is strategically correct, wrote analyst Volker Bosse of Baader Bank. Metro had failed to build the subsidiary on the subcontinent to the largest three wholesalers. Metro gained 1.9 percent.
Across Europe, stock exchanges reported losses. The Eurozone's leading index, the EuroStoxx 50, closed 1.26 percent lower at 3823.29 points. The French Cac 40 fell by around one percent. London's FTSE 100 held up better with a moderate minus. Here a weak pound helped, with which the competition chances of British enterprises can improve. The U.S. leading index Dow Jones Industrial was 1.5 percent lower at the end of European trading.
On the foreign exchange market, the euro gave back initial gains, falling below 1.06 U.S. dollars and last cost 1.0589 dollars. The European Central Bank (ECB) had previously set the reference rate at 1.0633 dollars.
On the bond market, the upward trend in interest rates continued. The current yield rose from 2.27 percent the previous day to 2.30 percent. The Rex bond index fell 0.11 percent to 126.50 points. Bund futures lost 0.46 percent to 135.21 points in the evening./bek/he
--- By Benjamin Krieger, dpa-AFX ---
