DAX Rises Nearly 0.6% On Renewed Hopes Of U.S.-Iran Peace Talks

(RTTNews) - German stocks moved higher on Monday as reports saying Iran has sent a peace proposal to the US aimed at easing the ongoing Middle East conflict lifted investor sentiment. According to reports, Iran gave the United States a new proposal on reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and ending of the war, with nuclear negotiations postponed for a later stage. The new proposal, reportedly given to the US via the Pakistani mediators, focuses on solving the crisis over the strait and the US blockade first. As part of that, the ceasefire would be extended for a long period or the parties would agree on a permanent end to the war. The White House has received the proposal but it's unclear whether the US is willing to explore it. Investors also looked ahead to interest rate decisions several central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England. The German benchmark DAX was up 137.13 points or 0.57% at 24,278.00 a little past noon. Siemens climbed 3.7%. Infineon Technologies, Rheinmetall, Adidas and Commerzbank gained 1.7%-2%. Zalando moved up 1.5%, while Scout24 and Brenntag gained 1.2% and 1%, respectively. RWE, Heidelberg Materials, Deutsche Bank, BASF and Deutsche Post posted moderate gains. Shares of wind turbine manufacturer Nordex soared 12% after the company's first-quarter earnings surpassing analysts' expectations. Merck drifted lower by 1.7%. Hannover RE, Continental, Muich RE, Siemens Energy, GEA Group and Fresenius shed 0.5%-1.2%. In economic news, the latest results of the NIM Consumer Climate powered by GfK showed German consumer sentiment is set to deteriorate sharply in May as income expectations collapsed due to rising inflation amid the war in Iran. The forward-looking consumer confidence index fell to -33.3 in May from -28.1 in April. This was the lowest score since February 2023. The economic expectations index, which measures consumers' outlook for the German economy over the coming twelve months, dropped 6.8 points to -13.7 in April. Income expectations plunged 18.1 points to -24.4 in April largely driven by cooling economic expectations and rising price expectations. The willingness to buy dropped 3.5 points to -14.4, marking a two-year low in a long-term comparison, GfK said. At the same time, the willingness to save indicator fell to 16.1 from 18.5 in the previous month. The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.