DAX Rises Ahead Of ECB Rate Decision

(RTTNews) - German stocks are up in positive territory Thursday morning, lifting the market to fresh record highs ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement due later in the day.

Investors are digesting some corporate updates and data showing a rise in the nation's import prices for the second consecutive month. Eurozone GDP data is due later in the day.

The ECB is widely expected to lower interest rates for the fifth consecutive time, and also likely to signal further easing in order to revive growth.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve left its key rates unchanged, and noted inflation remains "somewhat elevated" and reiterated its strong commitment to returning inflation to its 2% objective.

Notably, the Fed removed a phrase included in previous statements indicating that inflation has "made progress" towards it target.

The benchmark DAX was up 64.17 points or 0.3% at 21,687.25 a little while ago.

Siemens Energy is gaining 4%. Vonovia is up 2.3%, while Siemens, HeidelbergCement, Rheinmetall, BASF and Continental are advancing 1.4 to 2%.

Brenntag, MTU Aero Engines, Beiersdorf, Siemens Healthineers, Merck, Sartorius, Deutsche Post and Daimler Truck Holding are also notably higher.

Deutsche Bank is down 4.7% following a sharp drop in its fourth-quarter earnings. The banking major reported that its fourth-quarter profit attributable to shareholders plunged 92% to 106 million euros from last year's 1.26 billion euros.

Profit before tax was 583 million euros, down 17% from last year. Revenues were 7.2 billion euros, up 8% over prior year quarter, reporting the highest since 2014.

Looking ahead, for fiscal 2025, the bank reaffirmed its revenue goal of around 32 billion euros.

Symrise, Fresenius Medical Care, Commerzbank, Deutsche Telekom, RWE and BMW are lower by 0.3 to 1%.

Germany's import prices increased for the second straight month in December, and at the fastest pace in nearly two years, data from Destatis showed on Thursday.

Data from Destatis showed Germany's import prices registered an annual increase of 2%, following a 0.6% rise in November. Further, this was the fastest import price inflation since February 2023, when prices had risen 3.1%.

The annual price growth was largely driven by 4.6% higher charges for imported consumer goods, especially food commodities. Durable goods were 2% more expensive.

Month-on-month, import prices moved up 0.4%, after rising 0.9% in the previous month. The expected growth was 0.5%.

Data showed that export price inflation accelerated to 1.8% from 1.2% a month ago. On a monthly basis, export prices increased at a stable pace of 0.3%.

During the year 2024, import prices showed a decline of 1.2% compared to a 6.5% fall in 2023. On average, export prices in 2024 were 0.3% higher compared to previous year.