Friday trading has been cautious across Europe today with market participants waiting for the U.S. Department of Labour’s report on jobs growth and unemployment to provide an indication as to whether faster than anticipated interest rate rises by the Fed are likely. Traders waiting for this signal from the U.S., combined with disappointing German retail sales and factory orders data for November has led the Germany 30 to a modest 0.17% loss so far today. The DAX’s present level is still slightly up on the index’s starting position this morning, which was down on Thursday’s close.
German factory orders for November showed a 2.5% slide on October while retail sales were down a calendar and seasonally adjusted 1.8%. However, figures released a couple of hours ago on overall Eurozone economic confidence, industry confidence, services confidence, consumer and retail trade sentiment were all positive. The Eurozone’s economic confidence reading came in at 107.8 for December, up from November’s 106.6 and is the highest reading seen since March 2011. The industrial sentiment index, which had shown a negative -1.1 reading in November had turned positive for December at 0.1.
The services confidence index for December was at 12.9 compared to November’s 12.2 and consumer sentiment was recorded at -5.1, up from -6.2 the previous month, the improvement put down to increased confidence in future employment security and the general economic outlook. Finally, retail trade sentiment was up by more than 100% from 1.5 to 3.2.
The big loser on the DAX today is Lufthansa, down 3.13%. The airline had been showing gains since announcing on January 4th that it would hire 3000 new staff over the course of 2017, mainly flight attendants. Today’s loss brings the company’s share price back down to close to flat on where it began the year earlier in the week. Chemicals company Linde, whose share price rocketed over December in the lead up to Christmas due to the proposed ‘mega merger’ with U.S. peer Praxair, has seen this week’s correction continue today and is down 1.23%. The only other company on the DAX to have registered a loss of more than 1% for the moment is Commerzbank, down 1.2%. The dip can be put down to profit taking at the end of a strong week for the bank. Deutsche Bank is down 0.77%, also probably due to profit taking following a good first week of 2017.
There aren’t any particularly strong gainers today on the Germany 30 but housing association Vonovia has extended its strong end to the week to record a 0.67% gain so far today and corporate software company SAP is up 0.67%.