The financial markets got off to a shaky start to the week.

The FAZ Index, which broadly reflects a German stock market, only started in the black, slipped straight into the red but is currently 0.3 percent higher at 2758 points.

The Dax avoided a temporary minus and is currently 0.4 percent above the Friday close with 15,945 points, but still well below the 16,000 mark.

A recovery in the futures contract on the US S&P 500 index helped the market.

This had shown a negative trend in the early morning, but has since recovered to the level of Friday's closing price.

The chances of price gains on the German stock market are not bad because there will be no disruptive fire from the USA.

Wall Street will remain closed for Martin Luther King Day on Monday.

The development on the Asian stock exchanges had been mixed.

while Japan's Nikkei Index and China's CSI 300 closed higher, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.7 percent to 24,218 points.

The price drivers include the knee-jerk reaction to Chinese growth data on the one hand and an interest rate cut by the Chinese National Bank on the other. According to official figures from the Chinese leadership, the Chinese economy grew by 8.1 percent last year. the rather bad part of the news, that fourth-quarter growth slipped to just 4 percent, was then offset by the fact that the central bank cut two key interest rates, injecting additional liquidity into the financial system. This in turn shows that the narrative of the monetary policy supporting the stock markets and China as the growth engine of the global economy is still intact.

What went unnoticed, however, was that the situation on the Chinese real estate market continued to deteriorate. The bonds of the project developers Logan Group and Country Garden fell to new lows of less than 70 percent of the nominal value. In the case of Logan, there is speculation that the company has made extensive private placements, which it denies. Project developers currently have almost no access to the dollar bond market. Country Garden had to withdraw a convertible bond last week due to weak demand. According to the financial information service Bloomberg, at least seven project developers have been unable to service their dollar bonds since October.Chinese real estate companies will have to redeem around $99 billion worth of bonds this year, half of which is denominated in dollars.  

For the time being, the oil price lost its fight for a new seven-year high. During the night, the price of a barrel (159 liters) of Brent North Sea oil rose to $86.71. however, the price came under pressure and much clearer in European trading this morning. Most recently, $86.10 was paid for the barrel. Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister, Abdulaziz bin Salman, has expressed no concern about the rise in prices. It was understood that the OPEC+ group will not expand oil production anytime soon.

On the other hand, however, Kazakh oil production has apparently returned to normal levels.

In addition, Libyan oil production has returned to 1.2 million barrels a day after a blockade of oil fields was lifted and oil ports in the east of the country were reopened, according to government officials.

At the beginning of the year, Libya's oil production had fallen to just over 700,000 barrels a day.

This had contributed to the recent sharp rise in oil prices.