DAX Extending Gains To 7th Session

(RTTNews) - German stocks are up on Wednesday, rising for a seventh straight session, amid easing trade tensions, and on fairly encouraging quarterly results from big name companies. Investors are also digesting a slew of economic data.

According to media reports, China had quietly compiled a list of U.S.-made goods exempt from its 125 percent tariffs - seeking to ease trade tensions without public concessions.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes the U.S. will have a deal with India on trade.

The White House has also had "substantial talks" with Japan, and "the contours of a deal" with South Korea could be coming together, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The benchmark DAX, which climbed to 22,610.50 earlier in the session, was up 106.75 points or 0.48% at 22,556.60 a little while ago.

Deutsche Post is up 3.2% and Deutsche Boerse is gaining 2.3%. Deutsche Telekom is rising 2.1% and Bayer is up by about 2%.

Fresenius Medical Care, Qiagen, Rheinmetall, Vonovia, Continental, MTU Aero Engines, Fresenius, Siemens and Benntag are up 1 to 2%.

Volkswagen is gaining about 0.5%. Volkswagen Group reported earnings of 2.19 billion euros in fiscal 2024, down 40.6% from 3.68 billion euros a year earlier. Operating result declined 36.9% to 2.87 billion euros from 4.55 billion euros a year ago.

Sales revenue, however, grew 2.8% to 77.56 billion euros from prior year's 75.46 billion euros, due to higher vehicle sales in markets outside China.

Looking ahead, for fiscal 2025, Volkswagen continues to expect the sales revenue to exceed the previous year's figure by up to 5%. The operating return on sales for the Group is still expected to be between 5.5 and 6.5%. The outlook does not include any impact from recently announced tariffs.

Mercedes-Benz is declining nearly 1%. Mercedes-Benz Group reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of 1.678 billion euros or 1.74 euros per share in the first-quarter of 2025, down from 2.974 billion euros or 2.86 euros per share last year.

Siemens Energy is down by about 1.4%. Deutsche Bank, Adidas and Commerzbank are down 2.3%, 2.4% and 3.3%, respectively. Zalando is lower by about 3.7%.

On the economic front, preliminary data showed the Eurozone economy expanded by 0.4% in the three months to March of 2025 after growing by 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The German economy recovered in the first quarter driven by higher private consumption and investment, flash data from Destatis revealed. Gross domestic product grew 0.2% sequentially, offsetting the 0.2% fall in the preceding quarter. The rate also matched economists' expectations.

The unemployment rate in Germany rose slightly in April, the Federal Employment Agency said today. The jobless rate rose to 6.3% from 6.2% in March.

Germany's retail sales declined 0.2% in March, a slower than expected pace, according to preliminary data from Destatis. In February retail sales had increased by 0.2%. Sales were expected to decline 0.4% in March.

Year-on-year, retail sales growth slowed to 2.2% in March from 4.3% in the previous month.

Germany's import prices increased 2.1% year-on-year in March, slowing from a 3.6% rise in February, which was the fastest pace since January 2023. On a monthly basis, import prices fell 1.0% in March, the first monthly decline in six months and the steepest fall since December 2023, reversing a 0.3% rise in February and compared to market estimates of a 0.7% drop.