A strangely turbulent trading week lies behind investors. Following last Monday's slump and the subsequent recovery, uncertainty is likely to remain high. Recession worries in the USA and the smouldering geopolitical risks in the Middle East are still anything but off the table.
DAX Chart
Source: Tradingview
A cocktail of uncertainty caused investors around the globe to take flight at the start of the week. In addition to recession worries in the United States, it was geopolitical uncertainties in the Middle East and the unwinding of so-called "carry trades" that caused a stock market tremor. High-risk investments in particular flew out of investors' portfolios as a result.
ISM data better than expected - initial jobless claims as a glimmer of hope
From the perspective of the economic data calendar, the past few days have been comparatively quiet.
On Monday, new ISM data in the US for the services sector temporarily capped further losses, which were somewhat better than expected.
While Tuesday and Wednesday were of less interest, initial jobless claims caused a stir on Thursday, as expected. Last week, a total of 233,000 US Americans filed an application, fewer than expected (240,000), which eased economic concerns in this context.
Just a week ago, a strangely weak US labor market report had fueled concerns about an economic slowdown.
Fed central banker optimistic about inflation trend - reporting season as a sideshow
US central banker Thomas Barkin was relaxed late on Thursday evening with regard to the development of inflation in the USA. "I'm actually pretty optimistic that we'll see good readings on the inflation side over the next few months," said the president of the Richmond Fed.
On Friday morning, the final inflation rates in Germany were as high as expected at 2.3%. Compared to the previous month, price pressure increased by 0.3 percent, after 0.1 percent in June. New US inflation data will be published next Wednesday.
In view of the recent market turbulence, the current reporting season went somewhat under the radar. Nevertheless, Infineon's figures made the headlines on Monday, which suffered from the gloomy outlook for the technology sector. On Thursday, Deutsche Telekom, Munich RE, Siemens and Allianz reported on the past quarter.
The Bonn-based Group was again able to increase its premium income and profit. Munich Re was able to absorb losses from natural catastrophes in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, Siemens benefited from major orders for industrial software. Allianz also coped well with the financial consequences of the floods in southern Germany and is aiming for another record profit this year.
