19.09.2025

FED delivers as expected + Meta could face a heavy fine + Dispute over sale of DB Schenker + VARTA AG announces supplement to restructuring concept

Overall, the measure taken by the US Federal Reserve was in line with most expectations, as was the forecast that interest rates are likely to fall by a further 50 basis points this year. At the same time, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell largely succeeded in allaying concerns that the US economy could be in a worse state in view of the large step downwards in his accompanying statements. He said the economy is strong overall and the labor market has cooled from earlier overheating and reiterated that the Fed is fully focused on the goals of its dual mandate. As to why the Fed decided to cut more, he noted that it had waited longer than other central banks to cut rates and therefore still had room to maneuver. The rate cut signals the start of a 12 to 18-month easing cycle and shifts the focus from inflation to supporting the labor market, says Homin Lee, strategist at Lombard Odier.

The Facebook Group Meta $META (-0,12%) could face a heavy fine in the European Union for market abuse in the advertising business. The EU Commission is complaining that Meta is linking its free Marketplace offering to its social network in order to undermine the business of its competitors, according to sources in the Financial Times. The Commission's decision could be announced in October. It would be one of the last investigations by outgoing Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The Commission declined to comment, as did Meta. (Financial Times)

CVC
$CVC is letting DB Schenker is not letting up. The financial investor is not prepared to accept that Deutsche Bahn will sell its freight forwarding subsidiary to the Danish logistics group DSV for more than 14 billion euros, as currently agreed in a preliminary contract. DSV
$DSV (-0,39%) to the Danish logistics group DSV. In a letter dated September 17 to the investment bankers Tibor Kossa from Goldman Sachs and Jens Maurer from Morgan Stanley, who were commissioned by Deutsche Bahn to work on the billion-euro deal and which is available to Börsen-Zeitung, CVC Germany's CEO Alexander Dibelius signals that he is prepared to increase his 14 billion-euro offer for Schenker after it was defeated in the bidding process. (Börsen-Zeitung)

The VARTA AG $VAR1 (+9,9%)
announces that it has today reached an agreement with almost all syndicated lenders as well as a company controlled by the current indirect majority shareholder of VARTA AG ("MT InvestCo") and Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG ("Porsche") on an amendment to the commercial agreement on a restructuring concept published on August 17, 2024. The amended restructuring concept essentially corresponds structurally to the restructuring concept of August 17, 2024 and additionally contains an improved offer to the promissory note loan creditors to participate in a consensual restructuring of VARTA AG within the framework of the notified restructuring project under application of the German Corporate Stabilization and Restructuring Act (StaRUG). Overall, the existing debt burden of € 485m is now to be reduced by around € 255m to a total of around € 230m as part of a haircut.

Thursday: Stock market dates, economic data, quarterly figures

ex-dividend of individual stocks

Broadcom USD 0.53

Hewlett Packard Enterprise USD 0.13

Best Buy USD 0.94

Quarterly figures / company dates USA / Asia

22:00 Fedex quarterly figures

Quarterly figures / Company dates Europe

07:00 Wacker Chemie Capital Markets Day

08:00 Next half-year figures

10:00 Mister Spex Extraordinary General Meeting

Unspecified time: Juventus Football Club annual figures

Economic data

• 10:00 EU: ECB Balance of Payments July
• 10:00 NO: Norges Bank, outcome of the Monetary Policy Council meeting
• 13:00 UK: BoE, outcome and minutes of the Monetary Policy Council meeting Bank Rate PROGNOSE: 5.00% previous: 5.00%
• 13:00 TR: Turkish Central Bank, outcome of the council meeting
• 14:30 US: Initial Jobless Claims (week) FORECAST: 229,000 Previous: 230,000
• 14:30 US: Philadelphia Fed Index September FORECAST: -1.1 previously: -7.0
• 14:30 US: Current Account 2Q FORECAST: -260.00 bn USD 1st quarter: -237.65 bn USD
• 16:00 US: Leading Indicators Index August FORECAST: -0.3% yoy previous: -0.6% yoy
• 16:00 US: Existing Home Sales August PROGNOSE: -1.3% yoy previous: +1.3% yoy