FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A mixed week so far is likely to continue for the DAX on Wednesday with modest gains. Two hours before the start of trading, broker IG valued the leading German index at 24,112 points, up 0.1 percent. It thus remains above the psychologically important 24,000-point mark. However, the record high from October, at 24,771 points, is still some way off.
After the rise until mid-December and the recent stagnation above 24,000 points, there can be no talk of a pre-Christmas year-end rally. "There is simply no sign of sustained buying sentiment on the German benchmark index at the moment," wrote market observer Thomas Altmann of QC Partners. Investors had recently begun to take profits on stocks that had performed well and shift to isolated recovery candidates.
The previous day's US labor market data did not provide the impetus that the market had hoped for. The data submitted later was mixed and generally caused disillusionment regarding further interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve in the short term. Now, on Thursday, inflation data will come into focus as the second important criterion for the Fed. Further highlights are expected with the interest rate decisions of the ECB and the Bank of England./tih/jha/
