Everything gets more expensive.

Not a day goes by without the price of some product rising again.

The ECB will very likely react with a rate hike in the week after next.

Interest charges.

Savers like to hear this word if it is not coupled with the words “low”, “zero” or even “penalty”.

Credit interest, however, sounds like music to the ears, and something is actually moving.

Inken Schoenauer

Editor in business, responsible for the financial market.

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In the past week, many a bank customer was able to look forward to a (note!) doubling of the interest on the money market account.

Is the call money account now becoming an investment account?

Limited only.

We move in the categories after the comma.

Some banks are now granting a whopping 0.4 percent on credit instead of 0.2.

After all.

As Hermann Hesse put it: there is magic in every beginning.

In contrast, little magic is being cast in the stock market this week.

The first clairvoyants already see the leading German index Dax at 10,000 points.

Interest rate hikes are simply not for stockbrokers who have been used to success in recent years.

On Tuesday, the Dax marked its lowest level in around a year and a half when it came to a halt at 12,391 points.

No need to panic, as the leading index on the stock exchange charted a V over the course of the week and even passed the 13,000 point mark at the end of the week.

But it remains difficult.

Stock reluctance

"The international stock markets have been weak recently," said the Raiffeisenbank in a capital market commentary.

Concerns about rising yields seem to be increasingly being replaced by fears of a significant downturn in profits.

"We continue to see the increasingly restrictive liquidity environment as one of the greatest stress factors for the next few months." In contrast to the bond markets, this issue has not yet been sufficiently reflected in share prices.

"We therefore remain very cautious about equities." The eagerly awaited maintenance of the gas pipeline Nord Stream 1, which is due to start on Monday, should also contribute to the reluctance.

Will this maintenance really only last a few days?

When we talk about rising interest rates, the banks and their business model immediately come to mind.

Why were the banks whining that the source of income from the interest business had stopped bubbling years ago.

In the meantime, interest rates have already reached over 3 percent.

But there is no sign of jubilation.

Recession worries are circulating – mainly because of the energy crisis.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing pointed this out again at the beginning of the week.

"I can't deny that I'm concerned about what's in store for us in the next 12 months," he had said.

The connection is clear: where there is a recession, defaults follow.

The downturn on the stock exchange probably too.

On February 10, Deutsche Bank reached its high for the year of EUR 14.46.

On Friday, it ended the past trading week at a good 8 euros.

In mid-February, Commerzbank once again surpassed the EUR 9 mark after years of dry spells.

The paper was quoted at EUR 6.30 at the end of the week.

Winning stocks look different.