08.08.2024 +
Munich Re increases profit more than expected + Decline in earnings at SMA Solar + Disney's streaming business in the black for the first time + Varta to be rescued

By the middle of the week, the DAX had made up for its heavy losses at the start of the week.

the beginning of the week. However, the New York stock market had already fallen again in the course of the week.

down again. The stock markets have been in a bumpy ride since the price slump triggered by recession worries in the

USA triggered by recession worries.

The Austrian entrepreneur Michael Tojner wants to use a financial injection of millions of euros to take over the crisis-ridden battery manufacturer Varta $VAR1 (-0,72 %) as a single entity. "I am not in favour of selling off parts of the business, but of stabilizing the entire group in order to give it the chance to continue working with all business units and to preserve jobs," Tojner told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Varta AG needs around 100 million euros to secure production for the next few years. "Part of the new equity would come from us, the rest from banks and Porsche. However, we would also undertake to subscribe additional money if this should be necessary for the restructuring," Tojner continued. (FAZ)

The world's largest reinsurer Munich Re $MUV2 (+1,2 %) remains cautious with its profit forecast, as expected, despite a very good result in the second quarter. "Our profit target for the year as a whole remains unchanged at 5.0 billion euros," said Group CEO Joachim Wenning on Thursday when presenting the figures for the second quarter in Munich. "However, the chances of achieving or even exceeding this target have increased further thanks to the strong half-year results." In the first six months of the year, Munich Re earned 3.76 billion euros, 55 percent more than a year ago, partly due to good business on the capital markets. The company thus exceeded experts' expectations.

The inverter manufacturer SMA Solar $S92 (-5,3 %) performed better than expected in the first half of the year. Sales fell by 2.5 percent to a good 759 million euros, as the company announced on Thursday in Niestetal, Hesse. Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) even fell by more than a third to just under 81 million euros. The bottom-line profit fell even more sharply to a good 44 million euros. However, analysts surveyed by the Bloomberg news agency had expected a weaker performance. SMA confirmed the annual targets lowered in mid-June. Since then, the Managing Board has expected sales of €1.55 to 1.7 billion and EBITDA of €80 to 130 million for 2024.

Disney's $DIS (-0,71 %) streaming and film business shifted up a gear in the past quarter, making up for the shortfall in the theme park division. The entertainment giant's streaming unit, which includes the flagship platform Disney+, Hulu and the sports-focused ESPN+, became profitable a quarter earlier than planned and generated an operating profit of 47 million US dollars on revenues of 6.38 billion dollars, according to Disney. Overall, Disney earned 2.62 billion dollars in the quarter under review, following a loss of 460 million dollars in the previous year, when the US group had to record considerable restructuring and impairment costs. Group sales rose by 3.7 percent to 23.16 billion dollars in the third quarter. This is more than analysts had expected: The Factset consensus estimate had been for a net profit of 1.94 billion dollars and sales of 23.08 billion dollars. Disney was more confident for the current financial year and raised its forecast for adjusted earnings per share growth to 30 percent from the previous 25 percent. The previous day, Disney had announced a new round of price increases for almost all of its streaming offerings, which will take effect in October.

Thursday: Stock market dates, economic data, quarterly figures

ex-dividend of individual stocks

Astrazeneca 0.7760 GBP

BP 0.0629 GBP

Unilever 0.3696 GBP

Quarterly figures / company dates USA / Asia

22:00 Expedia | News Corp Quarterly figures

Quarterly figures / Company dates Europe

06:45 Basler | Zurich Insurance Half-year figures

07:00 Allianz | Deutsche Telekom | Knorr-Bremse | Siemens quarterly figures

07:00 SMA Solar | Ströer | Aareal Bank | Grenke Quarterly figures

07:00 Hamborner Reit | Knaus Tabbert | Synlab quarterly figures

07:30 Munich Re | Prosiebensat1 | Rheinmetall | Scout24 | Bike24 quarterly figures

07:30 Deutz | Dürr quarterly figures

07:30 GFT Technologies | Instone | SGL Carbon | SNP Schneider quarterly figures

07:30 Uniper | SAF-Holland | United Internet quarterly figures

07:50 1&1 Half-year figures

08:00 Deutsche Beteiligungs AG | Leifheit | OHB | Westwing | CRH | Deliveroo quarterly figures | Siemens PK

08:30 Prosiebensat1 PK | Uniper Analyst Conference

09:00 Ionos half-year figures | Ströer | Deutz analyst conference | Munich Re PK

09:30 Siemens Analyst Conference

10:00 Deutsche Telekom PK

11:00 Allianz PK | Munich Re Analyst Conference

11:30 Grenke PK | United Internet BI-PK

13:30 SMA Solar Analyst Conference

14:00 Rheinmetall | SGL Carbon Analyst Conference

14:30 Allianz Analyst Conference

15:00 Scout24 | Dürr Analyst Conference

Economic Data

• 14:30 USInitial Jobless Claims (week) FORECAST: 240,000 Previous: 249,000