Concerns about the economy continue to weigh on the stock markets.

In an internationally nervous stock market environment, the German share index Dax was down up to 1.3 percent to 13,491 points on Monday morning.

Things looked similarly gloomy on the other stock exchanges in Europe.

The stock markets in Asia had previously fallen significantly, which was mainly due to the cooling of the Chinese economy.

Export growth there slowed.

Markus Fruehauf

Editor in Business.

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In China, the zero-Covid policy with its tough pandemic restrictions is having an impact, said investment strategist Michael Hewson from brokerage house CMC Markets.

"The prospect of an easing of supply chain concerns seems further away than it was a few months ago." At the same time, investors fled to the safe haven of the American currency.

The dollar index, which tracks rates against major currencies, rose as much as 0.4 percent to 104.19 points, the highest level in nearly 20 years.

Yield at eight-year high

The euro lost 0.3 percent to $ 1.0516 in value.

The sell-off continued on the bond market.

The yield on the ten-year Bund rose to an eight-year high of 1.163 percent.

Speculations that the European Central Bank (ECB) will raise interest rates continue to grow.

"Recent statements by leading central bankers suggest that more and more of them see a need for action," said economist George Buckley of investment bank Nomura.

The central bank heads of Finland and Austria had recently advocated this.

A recent survey by the investment consulting firm Sentix among 1267 professional investors shows how bad the mood on the stock market is.

The war in Ukraine and its consequences have made stockbrokers look at the economy in the euro area with more skepticism than they have in about two years.

The Sentix barometer fell for the third month in a row in May and more than expected.

It fell by 4.6 to minus 22.6 points - the lowest value since June 2020 - according to Sentix a clear warning sign of a recession.

"The economic dimension of the Ukraine conflict is becoming more and more precarious," says Sentix Managing Director Manfred Hübner.

"Significant turmoil in equities"

Experts interviewed by the Reuters news agency had only expected a drop to minus 20.8 points.

The investors surveyed assessed both the situation and the prospects as worse.

Expectations have even fallen to their lowest level since December 2008: "It is therefore clear that the economic downturn is now taking on a dimension that is likely to lead to considerable upheaval in shares, but also to an increase in risk provisioning for banks," explained Sentix .

Among German stocks, Infineon was unable to translate a surprisingly large increase in sales and increased annual targets into price gains.

The chipmaker's shares fell 3 percent.

The moderate increase was expected, wrote analyst Janardan Menon from the investment bank Jefferies.

In addition, the increasing length of time products remain in warehouses, not only at Infineon, points to a downturn in the industry in the coming year.

At times, SMA Solar's share price fell by more than 13 percent.

Here, after a good run, investors fled because of a skeptical analyst comment.

The stock was last seen as a beneficiary of the energy crisis, which had pushed the price to a high since November.

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