Indications of a somewhat less expansive American monetary policy soon weighed on the German stock market only slightly on Thursday.

The leading index Dax fell by 0.09 percent to 15,696 points and thus kept its record high of almost 15,803 points reached at the beginning of the week in view.

The M-Dax of the medium-sized stocks fell by 0.17 percent to 34,174 points.

He had reached a record on Tuesday.

The Euro Stoxx 50, the leading index for the Eurozone, lost 0.3 percent.

America's Federal Reserve is continuing its extremely loose monetary policy in view of the continuing corona dangers.

But she is obviously thinking harder about slowing her down a little.

Specifically, it is about when the Fed will cut back on its regular cash injections to support the economy.

In addition, key interest rates could rise twice in 2023, as the central bankers' interest rate forecasts show.

So far, the forecast provided for an unchanged monetary policy with key interest rates close to the zero line.

Looking at individual stocks, the disappointing test results for the corona vaccine from the company Curevac had a particularly negative impact.

This did not only affect the Curevac share itself, the price of which lost more than half.

Wacker Chemie is also falling under the wheels as a production partner for the less effective than hoped-for Curevac vaccine candidate. The shares lose 6.4 percent and fall to a four-and-a-half-week low. Production of the mRNA-based Curevac vaccine at Wacker's biotech site in Amsterdam was originally scheduled to start in the first half of the year.

After the setback for Curevac, Bayer's shares also come under pressure.

The shares of the pharmaceutical company lost 1.3 percent in Frankfurt early trading and are at the end of the Dax.

"Bayer has entered into a production cooperation with Curevac, which seems to be the next flop for them," said a trader.

According to the interim analysis, Curevac's corona vaccine candidate has not achieved the required effectiveness.

After the start of official trading, however, the losses in Bayer stock decreased.

Bond yields rise

The prospect of a turnaround in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve earlier than previously expected had pushed yields on the bond markets upwards. The interest on ten-year federal papers first climbed to minus 0.149 percent from minus 0.2 percent on Thursday night. On Thursday morning she wrote something down again. The yield on US Treasuries was 1.565 percent after rising 1.594 percent overnight, its highest level since early June.

"Now it's a question of when and at what speed the Fed will reduce its bond purchases," said portfolio manager Thomas Altmann from trading house QC Partners. The Fed intends to administer the monthly dose of cash injections of $ 120 billion until significant progress is made in terms of price stability and employment. However, for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, it signaled on Wednesday that there could be a rate hike in 2023.

Market participants on the futures exchanges now expect a probability of around 90 percent with an increase by January 2023, previously they had assumed a period until April. BayernLB analysts commented that expectations of two interest rate hikes in 2023 rose significantly after the Fed meeting. In addition, the debate about inflation and interest rates that had been in the background on the stock exchanges in recent weeks has rekindled, said Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at the trading company CMC Markets.