BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - German stocks are down in negative territory on Thursday amid uncertainty about U.S. tariffs on China and other countries, and on a mixed batch of earnings updates from European companies. Also, investors are looking to take some profits after previous session's sharp upmove.
The benchmark DAX, which dropped more than 200 points to 21,728.89 earlier in the session, was down 95.30 points or 0.43% at 21,836.89 a little while ago.
SAP, which closed with a hefty gain on Wednesday thanks to strong quarterly results, is down 2.5% today on profit taking.
Brenntag and Siemens Energy are down 2.4% and 2.1%, respectively. Rheinmetall, Zalando, Commerzbank, MTU Aero Engines, BASF, Siemens, Daimler Truck Holding and Heidelberg Materials are lower by 1 to 1.7%.
Adidas is up nearly 3% after delivering better-than-expected sales and profit for the first quarter. The sportswear maker reported that its preliminary operating profit for the first quarter of 2025 climbed to 610 million euros from last year's 336 million euros.
The company's gross margin improved to 52.1% compared to 51.2% last year. The year-over-year increase of the gross margin for the adidas brand was even stronger at 1.6 percentage points. Quarterly revenues grew to 6.153 billion euros from 5.458 billion euros in the prior year. In currency-neutral terms, sales increased 13%.
Vonovia, Infineon Technologies and Symrise are gaining 1.7 to 2%.
Porsche Automobil Holding, RWE, Fresenius Medical Care and Bayer are up 1 to 1.3%. Fresenius and Continental are moderately higher.
A report from the Ifo Institute said that the Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany edged higher to 86.9 in April from 86.7 in the previous month. April reading was the highest since July 2024. The business conditions index dropped to 86.9, while the current conditions index rose to 86.4 from 85.7 in the previous month.
However, the expectations index eased to 87.4 from 87.7, still above the consensus of 85, but reflecting higher uncertainty for companies as the risk of trade wars and protectionism triggered turbulence.
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