Market report: Hope for relief from oil and diesel prices

According to calculations by banks and brokerage houses, the DAX will start firmer at the end of the week. The broker IG Markets valued the Dax at an increase of 0.69 percent before trading began. On Thursday it closed 0.3 percent higher at 25,382 points.

Asian stock markets are recovering

Positive signals are coming from the Asian stock markets. After Thursday's strong sell-off, things are looking up again. The recovery is particularly clear in Japan. The Nikkei index, which tracks the development of the country's 225 most important companies, rose by 1.8 percent to 65,550 points. This means that the Nikkei is ending its six-day losing streak. The broader Topix also gained 1.8 percent and rose to around 4,073 points in the morning.

The situation in the Middle East remains a factor of uncertainty. According to the US military, Iran's Revolutionary Guards hit a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz with a missile. The US regional command Centcom, which is responsible for the Middle East, confirmed the attack on the “GFS PRIDE” on the X platform.

The ship did not hit a sea mine on Wednesday, as Iran claimed. Instead, it was hit by a bullet. In confirming the attack, the US military also made it clear that passage through the strait is currently associated with risks for merchant ships.

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important routes for global oil transport. A prolonged disruption to shipping traffic could restrict supply on international energy markets and drive prices further up. Traders and investors are following developments in the region closely.

In order to relieve the strained energy markets, additional reserves are to be released. Specifically, the aim is to accelerate the release of oil reserves, which was decided in March in response to the Iran war, and to complete it as soon as possible.

The IEA had decided to release a record amount of 400 million barrels of crude oil from strategic oil reserves. However, only around 330 million barrels of this have actually flowed so far, the IEA said. However, some countries have already released larger quantities than they had originally promised.

The release of the outstanding stocks promised in March will now bring around 100 million barrels onto the market, including 20 million barrels of diesel. In view of the tense situation on the diesel markets, priority should be given to releasing diesel, the IEA announced after a board meeting in Paris.

Against this background, oil prices will fall slightly in the morning. The North Sea Brent variety fell by 0.4 percent to $105.45 per barrel.

The major Italian bank Unicredit says it has received the green light from the European Central Bank's banking regulator to further expand its stake in Commerzbank. The approval should allow it to exceed the threshold of 30 percent of the capital and to increase its share beyond that without a set upper limit.

Unicredit described the decision as an important milestone on the way to a possible takeover. The approval also underlines the positive assessment of the transaction by the ECB and the confidence in the economic strength of the Italian bank.