DAX Modestly Higher; Infineon Shines

(RTTNews) - German stocks are modestly higher Thursday morning with investors reacting to the latest batch of earnings updates, and digesting German producer prices data and the minutes fro the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting.

The focus is also on the developments on the geopolitical front, and the Trump administration's trade and economic policies.

The benchmark DAX was up 76.17 points or 0.34% at 22,511.34 a little while ago.

Infineon is gaining nearly 3.5% on news the European Commission has approved a 920 million euro German state aid to Infineon for the construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden. The measure will allow Infineon to complete the MEGAFAB-DD project which will be able to produce a wide range of different types of chips, the European Commission said.

Siemens, Siemens Energy, RWE, Brenntag and Commerzbank are up 1 to 1.5%.

Munich RE, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom, BASF, Allianz, Bayer, Symrise and E.On are moderately higher. Shares of luxury vehicle major Mercedes-Benz Group are down by about 3% on weak results. The automobile major reported a profit of 2.48 billion euros for the fourth-quarter, down 20.3% from a profit of 3.12 billion euros in the year-ago quarter. EPS dropped 14.1% to 2.57 euros in the latest quarter, from last year's 2.99 euros. Full-year profits fell by about 30%.

The company has decided to buy back own shares worth up to a maximum 5 billion euros over the next two years. The program is subject to the renewal of the authorization by the Annual General Meeting in May 2025 to buy back own shares up to a maximum of 10% of the share capital.

MTU Aero Engines is down 2.7%. Airbus is declining 2.5% and Siemens Healthineers is down 2.1%.

Rheinmetall, Porsche, Fresenius Medical Care, Puma, Merck and Fresenius are down 0.5 to 1.3%.

Data from Destatis showed Germany's producer prices registered a slower growth in January, climbing up just 0.5% on yearly basis, following a 0.8% rise in December.

Consumer goods and durable consumer goods prices rose at a faster pace of 3% and 1.1%, respectively. Likewise, prices for capital goods gained 1.9%. On the other hand, intermediate goods prices fell 0.1%.

On a monthly basis, producer prices edged down 0.1%, the same pace of decline as seen in December.

The minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting revealed officials want to see further progress on inflation before they consider resuming lowering interest rates. The minutes also reiterated officials believe a "careful approach" in considering additional adjustments to the stance of monetary policy is appropriate given the high degree of uncertainty.