Look out below – the DAX is in trouble, down some 1.5%.
And I’m going to go ahead and assume this isn’t helping (via Bloomberg):
Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG shares tumbled on concerns about potential antitrust collusion, adding to burdens from recalls of diesel vehicles.
Daimler and Volkswagen informed antitrust regulators about decades of talks among German automakers on auto technology that may have breached cartel rules, Spiegel magazine reported Friday, citing a document submitted by Volkswagen in July 2016 and referencing another from Daimler. Germany’s Federal Cartel Office wasn’t immediately available to comment. Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW declined to comment.
If you pan out from today’s sharp slide, this isn’t exactly what you want to see:
And don’t forget, there’s the strong euro to worry about…
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We’ve been saying all week that the rapid rise in the euro which is eyeing its 2015 high after essentially calling bullshit on Mario Draghi’s purportedly “dovish” comments at yesterday’s post-ECB-meeting presser, would probably end up weighing heavily on European equities.
“The common currency, already at the strongest in almost two years, climbed to as high as $1.1677 in London on Friday, approaching August 2015’s high of $1.1714,” Bloomberg notes earlier this morning, adding that according to London-based traders, “fast names are adding to their long positions having trimmed their exposure heading into the ECB meeting.”
Needless to say, the euro is also buoyed by a dollar weakness tied to the expanding Mueller investigation stateside.
“…dollar weakness tied to the expanding Mueller investigation stateside.” LOL