FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Buoyed by hopes of interest rate cuts in the US, the DAX is likely to start slightly higher on Wednesday ahead of the release of US inflation data. The data will have a major impact on the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy. Two hours before the start of trading on Xetra, the broker IG estimated the leading German index at 17,857 points, an increase of 0.25 percent. The previous day, US producer prices had already supported the indices in Germany, but especially in New York.

Since its slide to almost 17,000 points at the beginning of the previous week, the Dax has now made up around half of its losses since the beginning of the month. At just over 17,900 points, it is encountering resistance at the price gap that emerged at the beginning of August.

In addition to consumer prices from the USA, investors in Germany are once again focusing on the reporting season in the middle of the week, which is now on the home straight. From the Dax, the energy companies RWE and Eon are presenting quarterly figures./ajx/mis