Concerns about a tightening of monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve Fed later this year not only weighed on the German stock market on Thursday.

In addition, uncertainty is growing in view of the rampant delta variant of the corona virus.

The Dax lost 1.4 percent to 15,749 points in early trading on Thursday.

The round mark of 16,000 points, which the German benchmark index crossed for the first time on Friday, has moved a little further away.

The M-Dax small cap index, which had risen to a record high the day before, fell 1.1 percent to 35,611 points.

The leading Eurozone index Euro-Stoxx-50 lost 1.8 percent to 4114 points.

Euro under pressure

In this environment, the euro fell well below the $ 1.17 mark on Thursday. In the morning, the common currency traded at $ 1.1666, its lowest level since last November. The European Central Bank set the reference rate on Wednesday afternoon at $ 1.1723. After the euro was able to stabilize temporarily in the middle of the week, it continued its downward slide during the night. One of the causes is the strength of the dollar. The American currency, on the other hand, gained in trading with all other major currencies.

As can be seen from the minutes of the latest Fed meeting published on Wednesday evening, the members of the central bank were divided on when the bond purchases to support the economy should be reduced.

The majority, however, was of the opinion that it should start in 2021.

Stock marketers fear that a reduction in purchases could put the stock markets under pressure because it would deprive the markets of liquidity and also make other asset classes such as bonds more attractive.

Whether the Fed begins towards the end of the year or early in the first quarter of 2022 is ultimately of little importance, said analyst Jeffrey Halley of broker Oanda.

Exchange rate losses also in Asia

The most important Asian stock exchanges also fell on Thursday.

They followed the guidelines of Wall Street.

The American stock exchanges came under more pressure in late trading after investors saw signs of an imminent tightening of monetary policy in the minutes of the recent meeting of the US Federal Reserve.

Halley also referred to hints by Chinese President Xi about a redistribution of wealth in the country.

The analysts at JPMorgan meanwhile interpreted Xi's statements on the regulation of extremely high incomes as a signal that property and inheritance taxes could be tightened.

The CSI-300 index in China lost 0.6 percent to 4867 points. For the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Hang Seng Index, it was 2.2 percent to 25,330. Points down. In Tokyo, the shares of the automaker Toyota were also sold. The Japanese business newspaper Nikkei had reported that the automaker wanted to cut production in September by 40 percent compared to the plan. The reason are the delivery bottlenecks for semiconductors and components due to the corona outbreaks in Southeast Asia. Toyota shares fell 4.4 percent. The Japanese leading index Nikkei 225 closed around 1.1 percent lower with 27,281 points.

On the American Wall Street, the American leading index Dow Jones lost 1.1 percent to 34,961 points on Wednesday. The technology-heavy Nasdaq had lost 0.9 percent to 14,526 points and the broad S&P 500 around 1.1 percent to 4,400 points.