DAX 30 Up Again as German Consumer Confidence Strengthens

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday closing beyond the symbolic 20,000 points level for the first time in history, the DAX 30 has added to yesterday’s strong gains with a stable-looking 0.4% return well into the afternoon, while the DAX Performance Index is also up.

With the infamous ‘wall’ along the U.S. - Mexico border Trump’s focus yesterday, the new ‘infrastructure rally’ is seeing global equities indices forging ahead for a second consecutive day. How much legs the fresh surge in optimism has remains to be seen but for now at least the picture is looking rosy for stocks. European equities have hit 1-year highs todays with the pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index surpassing December 2015’s record level.

Adding to the positive mood today is news that market research group GfK’s forward-looking consumer sentiment index has risen to a 10.2 reading for February. The reading surpasses forecasts and is a 0.3 improvement from January’s 9.9 reading.

Bayer is leading the pack today with a 2.78% gain. The company announced today the appointment of Dr Carsten Brunn as the new head of operations in the Americas. Brunn has been with Bayer since 2011, most recently serving as head of pharmaceuticals commercial operations in Japan, a role he has held since 2013.

Again in the healthcare sector, Fresenius Medical Care is also up by 2.71%. The company saw its share price take a hammering earlier in the month after its U.S. unit was subpoenaed over allegedly unethical links to the American Kidney Fund. The fund, a charity, helps fund premium-assistance programs supporting dialysis patients on private insurance plans. Fresenius makes a premium on patients on such plans.

While today’s gain is a long way off a recovery back to where the share price was before the news broke on January 6th, it will still come as welcome news to the company’s investors.

Continuing the healthcare theme, pharmaceuticals company Merck is also showing strong Thursday gains, up 2.32%. Other companies going well today include Commerzbank, up 1.3% and semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies, up 1.28%.

It’s not quite a day of such uniform gains as yesterday for the DAX 30 and there are a number of fallers. ThyssenKrupp, the steelmaker, has the biggest fall so far today, down 1.3%. Trump yesterday ruled that the two big pipeline projects he signed executive orders to bring into being earlier in the week would use only steel manufactured in the U.S. Heidelbergcement is also 0.49% after strong gains.

The three big car manufacturers on the DAX are also all down today after doing well yesterday. BMW is showing a loss of 0.56%, Daimler 0.9% and Volkswagen 0.78%.