The DAX index continues to have a quiet week. In the Tuesday session, the DAX is at 11,260, down 0.35% on the day. In economic news, German ZEW economic sentiment improved slightly to -13.4, beating of the estimate of -14.1 points. The all-eurozone release followed the same trend, improving to -16.6, which was above the forecast of -18.2 points. On Wednesday, the FOMC releases the minutes of its January policy meeting.
After posting strong gains on Friday, the DAX has given up some ground. Bank and automotive shares are in the red on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank has plunged 2.85%, while Daimler and Volkswagen have declined over 1.0%. Investors are keeping a close look at U.S-China trade talks, which continue this week in Washington. This will be the fourth round of talks, as the sides look to ease trade tensions after months of tit-for tat tariffs which have hurt global growth and rocked the stock markets. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joined the talks last week and called the negotiations “productive”. If there are tangible signs of progress, risk appetite could jump and send the equity markets higher.
The ZEW economic sentiment surveys remains mired in deep freeze, as investors and analysts are pessimistic about the economic outlook in Germany and the eurozone. There is a silver lining in the German release, as the readings have improved steadily over the past four months – back in October, the score was -24.7 points. In the first quarter of 2018, the readings were in positive territory, as the German economy was performing well. However, optimism then dissipated, as the global trade war intensified and the German economy slowed. It has been a similar story with the eurozone, as ZEW economic sentiment scores have been in negative territory since the second half of 2018.
