FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The Dax barely moved on Thursday in the absence of any impetus from the US stock markets. Investors also held back ahead of Friday's monthly labor market report from the world's largest economy, said stock market expert Andreas Lipkow. The risk of negative surprises is too great. Trading was thin, with the index moving in a narrow range of just under 115 points. The German leading index ended the day down 0.06 percent at 20,317.10 points.

The picture was hardly better for the indices below: the MDax of mid-caps rose by 0.03 percent to 25,581.27 points, and the small-cap index SDax barely budged. Across Europe, moderate gains were recorded for the most part. The leading index of the eurozone, EuroStoxx 50, rose by 0.43 percent to 5,017.91 points, and the stock markets in France, Switzerland and Great Britain also rose.

In New York, the stock exchanges remained closed due to the memorial service for Jimmy Carter. The 39th US president died on December 29, just three months before his 100th birthday.

On Wednesday, the Dax had risen to just below its record high of just over 20,500 points in December. Then it did a U-turn after a report by CNN sparked renewed concerns about U.S. import tariffs under President-elect Donald Trump.

Among the biggest losers in the Dax, the shares of the world's largest reinsurer, Munich Re, fell by 1.9 percent. According to expert Lipkow, investors are anticipating higher claims settlements here due to the forest fires in California. At the index top, Commerzbank shares rose by 2.9 percent and have thus already gained almost 7 percent since the beginning of the year.

On the MDax, attention was focused on Redcare Pharmacy with revenue figures for the final quarter of 2024. Thanks to electronic prescriptions, the online pharmacy posted strong growth and gained further market share. Shares rose by 3.0 percent.

Otherwise, the main focus was on the changes made by analysts to their investment recommendations. The shares of VW investment company Porsche Holding fell by 2.0 percent after Exane BNP downgraded them to "Underperform".

On the other hand, Beiersdorf's shares rose by 0.9 percent after Bernstein Research upgraded them to "Outperform." Analyst Callum Elliott wrote that the stock is also his favorite among European consumer goods manufacturers for 2025.

JPMorgan put the Lufthansa share on "Negative Catalyst Watch" and expects a rather negative surprise for the upcoming business figures. The airline's shares were the worst performers in the MDax, falling 4.4 percent.

Investors were encouraged by a buy recommendation from Hauck Aufhäuser for Hypoport. The share price rose by 2.5 percent. By contrast, Süss Microtec continued its downward slide and lost 6.2 percent after the analyst firm Jefferies removed its buy recommendation.

The euro weakened and was trading at 1.0291 US dollars in the early evening. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0305 (Wednesday: 1.0286) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9704 (0.9721) euros.

The bond index Rex fell by 0.23 percent to 125.05 points. The current yield rose in return from 2.42 percent the previous day to 2.46 percent. The Bund future lost 0.09 percent to 131.46 points./ck/he

--- By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX ---