DAX Investors Duck for Cover as Defense Stocks Gain Favor

DAX investors continue to retreat from the stock market.

The German benchmark index opened Thursday down 0.8 percent at 23,758 points. "The trade dispute between Washington and Beijing is still unresolved," said IG analyst Christian Henke. Negotiations between the US and China in London failed to deliver the hoped-for breakthrough. "The markets found the results lacking, as were the specific details of the talks."

After two days of negotiations in London, the US and China announced they had reached a basic understanding. This is expected to ease export controls, particularly on rare earths from China. However, a 55 percent tariff on imports from China will remain in place.

Among individual stocks, defense shares--which had recently come under pressure--continued their recovery at the start of trading. Rheinmetall initially rose by just over two percent. Shares in Hensoldt gained more than three percent, while Renk at times climbed over four percent. After some profit-taking, the defense sector had already rebounded on Wednesday.

(Report by Stefanie Geiger, edited by Elke Ahlswede. For questions, please contact our editorial team at [e-mail] (for politics and economics) or [e-mail] (for companies and markets).