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Bull in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange:

The Dax is still on a record course

Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa

The hunt for records on the German stock market continued on Wednesday.

The

Dax

reached a record for the fifth day in a row and surpassed the 17,600 point mark for the first time.

Most recently, the Dax gained 0.20 percent to 17,589 points.

The

MDax

of medium-sized stocks was unable to follow the Dax and lost 0.8 percent to 25,748 points.

The Eurozone leading index

EuroStoxx 50

stood still.

Bitcoin rises above $60,000

The digital currency Bitcoin exceeded the $60,000 threshold on Wednesday for the first time in two years.

This continues the most recent rally in the most important cryptocurrency, which began in January.

Just two weeks ago, digital money broke the $50,000 mark.

Bitcoin is currently still around $9,000 away from its all-time high, which was reached on November 10, 2021.

A year later, however, the price had plummeted to under $17,000.

According to market experts, the current interest was primarily triggered by the approval of special Bitcoin funds in the USA.

These Bitcoin ETFs were approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in January.

These Bitcoin spot ETFs are novel because they allow investors to invest in Bitcoin without having to directly purchase or hold the digital currency itself.

An event that is scheduled for April is also likely to play a role in the price development: the next so-called “Halving”.

The reward that Bitcoin miners receive for verifying crypto transactions is halved.

Ultimately, the process leads to a slower growing supply of Bitcoin, which has usually resulted in rising prices in the history of Bitcoin.

Mercedes-Benz asked

Mercedes-Benz

was among the top values ​​in the Dax

with a plus of 1.6 percent.

The US bank Jefferies recommended buying the shares and justified this with a strong balance sheet and plenty of liquidity in the car company.

Disappointing quarterly targets from the Dutch chip supplier

ASM International

weighed on the European chip industry.

As the bottom of the DAX,

Infineon

shares fell by 3.4 percent.

Another stock from the semiconductor industry,

Süss Microtec,

fell by almost 7 percent.

Warburg Bank had canceled the buy recommendation here.

Lanxess has to write off millions

As one of the biggest losers in the MDax, Lanxess

shares

lost 4.3 percent.

The chemical company takes depreciation in the three-digit million range.

Two business areas and the participation in the joint venture for high-performance plastics Envalior are affected.

This also weighed on shares of other chemical companies such as

Evonik

and the fragrance manufacturer

Symrise

.

In the SDax small cap index, the share price of the online broker

Flatexdegiro

fell by almost 8 percent after the presentation of business figures.

The shares of the used car dealer

Auto1

even fell - also according to figures - by more than 9 percent.

Losses in the USA

One day before important price data, investors on the US stock exchanges withdrew.

The

Dow Jones index

of standard stocks was down 0.5 percent at 38,774 points on Wednesday.

The broader

S&P 500

lost 0.3 percent to 5,063 points.

The

Nasdaq

technology exchange index fell 0.4 percent to 15,967 points.

US inventory data causes rising oil prices

Oil prices gave up a small portion of their previous day's gains on Wednesday.

Most recently, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea

Brent

cost 83.25 US dollars.

That was 40 cents less than on Tuesday.

The price of a barrel of American

West Texas Intermediate

(WTI) fell 35 cents to $78.52.

Oil prices were weighed down by inventory data from the USA.

According to the American Petroleum Institute (API) industry association on Tuesday evening, US crude oil inventories increased significantly last week.

The numbers are seen as an indicator for the US government's highly publicized inventory data due this afternoon.

The appreciating dollar also created price pressure.

The U.S. currency often influences the crude oil market through its exchange rate because the commodity is traded in dollars.

If the exchange rate rises, oil becomes more expensive for interested parties from other currency areas and thus affects their demand.

With news agencies