Worst week on the Vienna Stock Exchange since March

Headwinds came on Friday from disappointing sentiment data from the euro area and further rising oil and gas prices. In France, business sentiment fell significantly amid political unrest and concerns about public finances. The yield on ten-year French government bonds broke the five percent mark this week, reaching its highest level in 24 years. It’s the latest sign of investors’ growing concerns about the ability of the euro zone’s second-largest economy to repair its troubled public finances.

“It is getting uncomfortable on the financial markets,” commented analysts at the German bank Helaba. “An uneasy mix of geopolitical tensions, the almost insatiable thirst for capital in the AI ​​sector and continued concerns about France’s creditworthiness are fraying investors’ nerves.” As a result, investors avoided riskier investments, which also placed a heavy burden on the cyclical ATX.

The leading index had already slipped by more than four and a half percent on Thursday. The ATX has now fallen by more than eleven percent from its record closing price of more than 7,000 points at the end of September. Since the beginning of the year, however, it is still up almost 17 percent. In comparison with other European benchmarks, the Austrian leading index is clearly ahead. At its peak, the annual increase was almost a third.

USA

Investors in the USA also retreated further this week. The US technology exchange Nasdaq in particular suffered. Negatively received business figures from US technology giants such as Tesla, IBM and Meta noticeably depressed the mood. The Nasdaq index has fallen significantly from its record high reached at the beginning of October. The tech index, which fell by almost 3 percent the day before to its lowest level since mid-September, closed unchanged on Friday. On a weekly basis it recorded a minus of 0.8 percent.

The leading index Dow Jones lost 1.23 percent on Friday. This results in a weekly balance of plus 0.4 percent. The market-wide S&P 500 fell by 0.52 percent at the end of the week. It therefore recorded a loss of 0.5 percent for the completed trading week. The Dow had already visibly recovered in October from the previous two weak months. In contrast, the Nasdaq has fallen significantly from its record high reached early in October. However, so far this year he is still ahead.

The AI ​​fantasy that dominates the tech sector has recently suffered some scratches. The debate about whether the immensely high investments in artificial intelligence will ultimately pay off continues to dominate the picture.