DAX Remains Weak Despite Coming Off Early Lows

(RTTNews) - After declining sharply in early trades on Friday amid concerns about the outlook for global economic growth due to tariff threats by U.S. President Donald Trump, German stocks regained some lost ground subsequently thanks to selective buying at a few frontline counters.

Investors are also digesting the latest batch of earnings updates, and economic data including a report showing an increase in retail sales.

The U.S. President reiterated in a post on social media that tariffs on goods imported into U.S. from Canada and Mexico will be applied from March 4, along with additional 10% tariffs on goods produced in China. Trump also said reciprocal tariffs, which could also involve Europe, will be imposed from April 4.

The benchmark DAX, which tumbled nearly 200 points to 22,332.97 earlier in the session, was down 65.05 points or 0.29% at 22,458.55 a little while ago.

Shares of financial services company Allianz SE are down 0.6%, despite the firm reporting a rise in net profit in the fourth quarter. For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net income of 2.472 billion euros, higher than 2.151 billion euros recorded for the same period last year.

Allianz's operating profit improved to 4.174 billion euros from 3.765 billion euros a year ago, primarily driven by the Property-Casualty business with an operating profit of 1.948 billion euros, higher than 1.608 billion euros last year.

BASF is declining 1.3% following a drop in sales at 65.3 billion euros in 2024, compared with 68.9 billion euros in the previous year. BASF reported that fiscal 2024 net income came in at 1.3 billion euros, compared with 225 million euros in 2023. Earnings per share was 1.45 euros compared to 0.25 euros.

BASF's EBITDA in 2024 was 6.7 billion euros, compared with 7.2 billion euros. In 2025, BASF Group expects EBITDA before special items to increase to between 8.0 billion euros and 8.4 billion euros.

Continental is down more than 2.5%. Siemens Energy, Infineion and Munich Rueck are lower by 1.9 to 2.2%.

Zalando, Siemens Healthineers, Deutsche Boerse, SAP, Sartorius, Rheinmetall, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Deutsche Bank, Hannover Rueck and Bayer are down 0.7 to 1.6%.

MTU Aero is rising nearly 2.3%. Fresenius Medical Care is up 1.5% and Beiersdorf is gaining about 1.2%. Heidelberg, Fresenius and Henkel are up with modest gains.

Data from Destatis said retail sales in Germany rose by 0.2% month-over-month in January 2025, rebounding from a 1.6% decline in December. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales grew 2.9% in January, accelerating from an upwardly revised 2.8% increase in December.

Germany's import prices increased 3.1% year-on-year in January 2025, after rising by 2% in the previous month. On a monthly basis, import prices grew by 1.1% in January, up from a 0.4% rise in December.

Meanwhile, Germany's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 6.2% in February 2025, matching expectations and remaining at its highest level since October 2020.

Data on Germany's consumer price inflation is due later in the day.