Fear of tighter monetary policy in the United States is driving stock markets around the world to decline. The German stock exchange also started the day pessimistically. The leading index Dax fell in early trading on Thursday by 1.4 percent to 16,038 points after it had almost reached its historical high in the middle of the week. The biggest losers were Zalando, Delivery Hero and Sartorius. The M-Dax of the medium-sized values ​​lost 1.5 percent to 35,100 points. For the leading Eurozone index Euro Stoxx 50 it went down by 1.8 percent. Above all, the technology stocks that have been doing very well for a long time are currently on the sales list of many investors: The German Tec-Dax fell even more, it lost more than 2 percent in early trading.

Recent statements by the US Federal Reserve caused uncertainty.

According to the minutes of the Fed's December meeting published on Wednesday evening, given the surge in inflation, some of its members spoke out in favor of starting to reduce the central bank's total assets shortly after the first rate hike.

This would no longer replace expiring bonds, which should depress bond prices and increase yields accordingly.

This, in turn, would make stocks less attractive compared to fixed income securities.

Losses in America and Asia too

The American stock exchanges had already responded to the publication of the minutes with price losses on Wednesday evening. The Dow Jones Industrial, which had risen to a record high of just under 37,000 points before it was released, closed 1.07 percent weaker at 36,407.11 points. The S&P 500, which had hit a record on Tuesday, fell 1.94 percent to 4700.58 points. And the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 dropped by 3.12 percent to 15,771.76 points. At the same time, yields rose on the US bond market and the US dollar also rose. In the meantime, the Fed-Watch-Tool of the stock exchange operator CME estimates the probability at over 70 percent that the Fed will start to raise the key interest rate as early as March.

In Asia, too, the expectation of rising interest rates weighed on the stock markets.

In Japan, the Nikkei index, comprising 225 values, fell 2.9 percent to 28,487 points.

In China, the index of the major companies in Shanghai and Shenzen was down 1 percent. 

At the Fed meeting in December, according to the minutes, central bank members noted that it might be justified to raise interest rates earlier or at a faster pace than previously expected.

From the point of view of some participants, it could also make sense to start shrinking the central bank balance sheet relatively soon after the start of interest rate hikes.

Due to the extensive bond purchases, the Fed's balance sheet was recently swollen to around $ 8.8 trillion.