DAX Tumbles As Oil Prices Soar Amid War Worries, Fed's Hawkish Tone

(RTTNews) - German stocks tumbled on heavy selling Thursday morning, hurt by a sharp jump in oil prices after Iran's attacks on energy facilities in the Middle East, including the South Pars gas field.

The rise in bond yields following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish tone on inflation, and data showing an acceleration in U.S. wholesale prices in February, also weigh on sentiment.

After leaving interest rates unchanged, Powell said in his post-meeting press conference on Wednesday that the U.S. is seeing "some progress on inflation" but "not as much as we had hoped."

Powell warned that "you won't see the rate cut" if there isn't further progress on inflation because of the broader uncertainty linked to the Middle East conflict and President Trump's tariffs.

Brent crude futures shot up to $119.13 a barrel before easing to $114.19, still up nearly 6.5% over previous close.

Investors now await the monetary policy announcements from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England.

Germany's equity benchmark DAX, which fell to 22,860.50, was down 562.85 points or 2.39% at 22,964.78 a little while ago.

Vonovia is down as much as 9.4% after reporting lower revenue for the full year. For the 12-month period to December 2025, the company posted a net income of EUR 3.723 billion, compared with a net loss of EUR 896 million last year. Net earnings per share were EUR 4.33 as against the prior year's loss of EUR 1.09 per share.

Infineon Technologies is down 5.5% and Siemens Energy is declining 4.8%, while Continental, Zalando, Commerzbank, Adidas, Siemens, Heidelberg Materials and BASF are down 3%-4%.

BASF, Daimler Truck Holding, MTU Aero Engines, Fresenius, Beiersdorf, BMW, Brenntag, Merck, Bayer and Mercedes-Benz are down 2%-2.9%. Gea Group, Volkswagen, Deutsche Post and Henkel are also down sharply.

RWE, Deutsche Boerse, Hannover RE and Munich RE are up marginally.