Frankfurt Stock Outlook: Dax threatens fifth consecutive day of losses

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - German stocks are expected to continue to decline on Thursday. Disillusionment over the trade agreement between China and the United States is compounded by growing concerns about a possible Israeli attack on Iran. For security reasons, the United States, an ally of Israel, is reducing its embassy staff in Iraq. There are fears that the Islamic Republic's leadership could order retaliatory strikes against US bases in the region in the event of an Israeli attack on its arch-enemy.

This mix of circumstances could cause the leading index, the DAX, to post its fifth consecutive day of losses. The X-DAX signaled the DAX was 0.8 percent lower at 23,764 points one hour before trading began. Overall, the DAX continues to move in a broader sideways trend, explains Martin Utschneider of Finanzethos. "The medium-term risk remains technically limited to 23,408 points."

The Eurozone's leading index, the EuroStoxx 50, is also expected to be weaker on Thursday.

A week ago, the DAX reached a record high of 24,479 points. "The DAX has lost steam," says market strategist Thomas Altmann of asset manager QC Partners.

Allianz shares lost one percent in premarket trading on Tradegate. Investment bank Barclays has recommended underweighting the shares of the DAX heavyweight in the portfolio.

SAP shares fell by almost one percent, thus failing to benefit from competitor Oracle's optimistic statements the previous evening regarding investments in cloud infrastructure. Oracle's share price rose by almost eight percent in the US after-hours trading.

Higher sales targets from Dutch chip manufacturer BE Semiconductor may also be pushing the industry's share prices here, as has happened with Suss Microtec and Aixtron. BE Semiconductor's share price jumped ten percent premarket./bek/mis

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