FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Rumors about the future US president's plans to enforce his import tariffs slowed the Dax on Wednesday. Just below its record high reached in December, the German leading index made an abrupt U-turn and turned into the loss zone. Thanks to a recent brightening of stock market sentiment in the US, the Dax ultimately closed down 0.05 percent at 20,329.94 points.
The trigger for the losses during the day was a report by CNN. The television station reported, citing several sources familiar with the matter, that Donald Trump is considering declaring a national economic emergency in order to be able to enforce the high import tariffs he has announced on a large scale.
Market analyst Konstantin Oldenburger from the broker CMC Markets emphasized that all of this is currently just speculation that is making the markets nervous. But the price swings are already showing what many market participants had predicted in the event of a populist Republican presidency: renewed volatility in the stock markets. However, Oldenburger remains calm, at least as far as tariffs are concerned: In the end, there will probably be a mixture of broad and targeted approaches, with tariffs initially lower than feared. There will probably be no scheduled increases until the affected countries change course.
The midcap index for Germany, the MDax, lost 0.91 percent on Wednesday to close at 25,574.85 points. The leading index for the eurozone, the EuroStoxx 50, fell by 0.31 percent to 4,996.39 points. Outside the eurozone, Switzerland's leading index, the SMI, rose. By contrast, the British FTSE 100 closed virtually unchanged. In the US, moderate gains were recorded after a weaker start to trading when the markets closed in Europe./ck/he