DAX Down Nearly 0.5% As Investors Focus On Economic Data

(RTTNews) - German stocks are down in negative territory in cautious trade on Friday as investors digest the nation's import prices and retail sales data and await U.S. inflation data due later in the day,

Data from Destatis showed Germany's import prices declined for the fourth straight month in July due to falling energy prices. A separate data from Destatis showed that retail sales in Germany dropped in July.

The benchmark DAX was down 107.95 points or 0.45% at 23,936.28 a few minutes ago.

Infineon Technologies is down 2.5%. Deutsche Bank, BASF, SAP and Siemens Energy are down 1.4 to 2%.

Volkswagen, Porsche Automobil Holding, Porsche, Adidas, Zalando and Mercedes Benz, Commerzbank, BMW, Brenntag, Bayer, Beiersdorf and RWE are also notably lower.

Rheinmetall is rising nearly 3.5%. Siemens, Fresenius Medical Care and Merck are gaining 0.6 to 0.75%. Heidelberg Materials and Fresenius are up with modest gains.

Data from Destatis showed Germany's import prices dropped 1.4% in July from a year ago, the same as in the previous month. Economists had forecast an annual drop of 1.2%.

The sharp decrease in energy prices had the biggest impact on overall import prices, Destatis said. Energy prices plunged 12.5%. Excluding energy, import prices were down 0.2% from July 2024.

On a monthly basis, import prices fell 0.4% after remaining flat in June.

Further, data showed that export price inflation softened to 0.6% in July from 0.7% a month ago.

Separate official data showed that retail sales declined 1.5% monthly in July, in contrast to a 1% recovery in June. Food sales contracted 1.8%, and those of non-food sales slid by 0.7%. The annual retail sales growth eased notably to 1.9% from 4.9%.

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Germany was unchanged from the previous month at 6.3% in August of 2025, aligned with market expectations to tie the highest ratio since September of 2020.