The DAX 40 surrendered early gains to trade slightly lower around 24,120 on Thursday afternoon, as investors digested an escalation of tensions in the Middle East alongside the latest ECB policy decision. The US president warned that the US military would attack Iran on Thursday evening and subsequently move to take control of the country’s oil infrastructure as well as its oil and gas markets.
At the same time, the ECB, as widely expected, raised its key interest rates, but signaled a more challenging macroeconomic backdrop by revising inflation forecasts higher and trimming growth projections.
In corporate moves, SAP (-4.5%) remained the weakest performer on the index, weighed down by a decline in Oracle shares after the latter’s post-earnings spending plans. By contrast, Deutsche Telekom rose about 3% after a Wall Street Journal report indicated that CEO Tim Höttges is pursuing a merger between the German telecoms group and its US subsidiary, T-Mobile US.
