The DAX index has posted sharp losses in the Friday session. Currently, the index is trading at 12,210.00, down 0.41% on the day. On the release front, there are no German or Eurozone indicators on the schedule.
Nervous investors continues to watch the massive sell-offs in the markets, and European markets have been following the downward trend in the North American and Asian sessions. It’s been a blue February for the DAX, which has plunged 7.8 percent. On Thursday, the DAX dropped to its lowest level since early September. Interestingly, the catalyst for the current turbulence has been solid economic data in the US, namely, improved payrolls and wage growth reports. This has raised concerns of inflation, which could lead to a quicker pace of rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. This sentiment has sent the bond markets higher, while weighing on global stock markets.
It’s been a slow process, but Germany finally is on the verge of forming a new government. On Wednesday, the socialist SDP and Angela Merkel’s conservatives announced that they had finalized a coalition agreement. In the last government, the SDP was the junior partner of the conservatives, but this time around the SDP has extracted major concessions from Merkel, including the finance and foreign affairs ministries. This will likely mark a shift in Germany’s eurozone policy, which had been marked by a conservative stance under former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The weaker members of the eurozone, such as Greece, will likely find a more sympathetic ear for financial help from the SDP than they did from Schauble. The coalition agreement still requires the consent of a majority of the 464,000 members of the SDP, but is expected to pass this final hurdle.
