DAX Drifts Lower On Weak Economic Data

(RTTNews) - After three successive days of gains, German stocks are a bit subdued on Friday, weighed down by disappointing economic data and concerns about global growth due to Trump administration's trade policy.

Investors are also awaiting U.S. Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report later in the day for more insight into the labor market and the outlook for Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

The benchmark DAX was down 63.52 points or 0.26% at 24,260.79 a few minutes ago.

Infineon Technologies, Qiagen and Porsche are down 1 to 1.3%. Rheinmetall is declining nearly 1%, while Commerzbank, Volkswagen, Adidas, Sartorius, Porsche Automobil Holding and Merck are down 0.4 to 0.8%.

Zalando, Vonovia, RWE, Deutsche Bank, Bayer, Hannover Rueck and Continental are gaining 0.4 to 1%.

Data from Destatis showed German industrial production declined more than expected in April as the temporary boost from the frontloading of orders ahead of the US tariff hikes faded.

Industrial output declined 1.4% month-on-month in April, in contrast to the 2.3% increase in March. This was the biggest fall since December, when production posted a similar decline. Production was forecast to drop 0.9%.

In three months to April, the less volatile production was 0.5% higher than in the previous three months.

Year-on-year, industrial production logged a decrease of 1.8%, worse than March's 0.7% fall.

Another data showed that Germany's trade surplus declined in April as exports to the US logged a double-digit decline amid a notable growth in imports.

German exports fell 1.7% month-on-month in April, reversing an increase of 1.2% in March, Destatis reported. The pace of decline was worse than the expected fall of 0.5%.

Meanwhile, imports grew 3.9% compared to a 1.4% drop in March. As a result, the trade surplus decreased to EUR 14.6 billion from EUR 21.3 billion in the previous month.

On a yearly basis, exports declined 5.2% in April, marking the biggest fall in five months. At the same time, growth in imports eased to 1.3% from 3.8% in March.