Goldman Sachs profit slumps - Lower earnings and write-downs

NEW YORK - Declining revenues and high write-downs have caused U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to post a slump in profits in the second quarter. The bottom line was a profit of just over 1.2 billion U.S. dollars (just under 1.1 billion euros) and thus 58 percent less than a year earlier, as the bank announced on Wednesday in New York. Fee income in investment banking slumped by a fifth, while income from trading in bonds, currencies and commodities fell by as much as a quarter. Net interest income also shrank somewhat. In addition, the bank wrote down nearly a billion dollars on real estate and retail platforms.

ROUNDUP: Wacker Chemie lowers forecasts due to weak demand

MUNICH - After its competitors Lanxess, Clariant, Evonik and BASF, Wacker Chemie has now also been hit: the chemicals group has to make significant cuts to its annual targets after a weak second quarter. The share price fell by a good two percent on Wednesday.

ROUNDUP/Circles: Oil group Adnoc raises offer for Covestro - share price falls

LEVERKUSEN - The takeover poker for Covestro could go into a new round. According to informed persons, the oil group Abu Dhabi National Oil (Adnoc) is raising its bid for the Dax group to 57 euros per share, as the news agency Bloomberg reported on Tuesday evening. In purely arithmetical terms, this would value the group at a good eleven billion euros. Adnoc had previously offered around 55 euros per share, according to earlier reports. Covestro had rejected this informal offer as too low, but had signaled a willingness to talk in principle. Both Covestro and Adnoc declined to comment on Tuesday when asked by Bloomberg.

ROUNDUP: EU car market recovers - More e-cars than diesels sold in June

BRUSSELS - Car sales in the European Union recovered significantly in the first half of the year from the weakness in 2022. In June, the upward trend of the previous months continued. Thus, a good one million passenger cars were newly registered and thus 17.8 percent more than a year earlier, as the European industry association Acea announced on Wednesday in Brussels. For the first half of the year, this represents an increase of 17.9 percent to a good 5.4 million cars. A milestone was reached with e-cars: In June, for the first time, more cars with purely electric drives were registered than diesel vehicles.

ROUNDUP: Diagnostics provider Stratec lowers targets - share price slumps

BIRKENFELD - Falling demand from its customers continues to hit diagnostics specialist Stratec hard. The first half of the year was weaker than feared, and management is therefore further lowering its already cautious sales and profit forecast. Although the Group promises some improvement for the second half of the year, the new targets are worse than analysts had previously expected. There were therefore long faces on the stock exchange on Wednesday morning. The share, which is listed on the SDax, slumped in the morning.

Hypoport sees first signs of stabilization on the real estate market

BIRKENFELD - Following the slump in the real estate market as a result of the rise in interest rates, financial services provider Hypoport is now observing the first signs of stabilization. The value of the properties marketed on its platform climbed by five percent to 2.5 billion euros in the past quarter, Hypoport announced in Birkenfeld on Wednesday. On the Europace lending platform, the transaction volume amounted to 16 billion euros in the second quarter, down 5 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023.

ROUNDUP: ASML increases margin and sets higher targets - share rises

VELDHOVEN - Despite a difficult economic environment, chip supplier ASML is raising its revenue forecast - albeit only slightly. Due to a high order backlog, the group topped analysts' expectations in the second quarter. It remains unclear when the recovery on the markets will begin, said Group CEO Peter Wennink. However, there are already signs of a significant increase in orders received.

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Customer Notice:

ROUNDUP: You are reading a summary in the company overview. There are several reports on this topic on the dpa-AFX news service.

/jha