Friday, November 26th, 2021
Price drop below 15,400
New Corona variant is teaching Dax to fear
Fear of new global lockdowns due to a new coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa is driving investors to flight in droves. It’s going down quickly: The Dax rushes almost four percent into the basement at the beginning.
On “Black Friday” there is a sell-out mood: For fear of a new dangerous virus variant, the Dax switches to hard correction mode. The German benchmark index plunges 3.8 percent to 15,324 points in early trading, the last time it was a year ago. Last week it had reached a record high of 16,290 points.
A new coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa is worrisome to stockbrokers, which is fueling fears of new lockdowns and economic worries. According to experts, the variant could be even more contagious than the currently rampant Delta type and more resistant to the previous vaccines.
“As long as one does not know anything about infection rates and vaccination protection, uncertainty rules on the stock exchange and it is sold,” comments analyst Jochen Stanzl from the online broker CMC Markets. “And a new variant that vaccines can’t control is like a new virus.”
Since Wall Street only opens for shortened trading after the US Thanksgiving Day and many investors take the opportunity for a long weekend, stockbrokers expect similarly thin sales in Europe as on Thursday. This could intensify price fluctuations.
The MDax of the medium-sized values also fell again on the morning after the recent recovery – it lost 2.56 percent to 34,112 points. It was last at this level in mid-October. Previously, the virus mutation had already spoiled the last trading day of the week in Asia and caused in some cases high price losses.
Timid attempt at recovery on Thanksgiving
The day before, investors had cautiously groped back after the price losses this week. Dax and EuroStoxx50 each gained almost half a percent on Thursday to 15,971 and 4,293 points, respectively. “We continue to view setbacks as an opportunity to get started,” commented investment strategist Marija Veitmane of wealth manager State Street.
A small ray of hope was the approval of Biontech’s coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of five and eleven by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This drove the biotech company’s stocks up 1.5 percent. Once the current wave of infections has broken, the attempt by the new federal government to dare to make more progress could lighten the mood of investors, CMC expert Stanzl predicted.