German stocks experienced an uptick Wednesday morning as investors responded positively to several encouraging corporate updates, alongside strong trade data from China that underscored the resilience of the manufacturing sector in the world’s second-largest economy. However, the market was unable to sustain its early gains and subsequently fell into negative territory. In December, China’s export growth surpassed market expectations, leading to a record trade surplus of $1.19 trillion in 2025, despite imports experiencing their most rapid rebound in three months.

The benchmark DAX, having reached a new record high of 25,474.72 in early trading, subsequently declined to 15,388.74 and was recently observed at 25,405.02, reflecting a decrease of 6.42 points or 0.03% from the previous close. RWE experienced an increase of 3.2%. The firm has been recognized as one of the developers granted guaranteed electricity price contracts in the most recent offshore wind auction in the UK.

• E.ON, Brenntag, BMW, Deutsche Boerse, Heidelberg Materials, Daimler Truck Holding,
  and BASF experienced increases ranging from 1% to 1.8%.
• Commerzbank and Continental experienced an increase of nearly 1%.
• Fresenius Medical Care experienced a decline of 6%.
• Zalando experienced a decline of 1.7% as investors engaged in profit-taking following a recent
  period of robust gains.
• Allianz, Rheinmetall, Deutsche Post, Vonovia, Deutsche Telekom, and Hannover Rueck
  experienced moderate losses.

Bayer experienced an increase of just over 3% following the announcement of its strategy to achieve mid-single-digit percentage growth in its pharmaceuticals division by 2027. The company anticipates reaching an operating margin of approximately 30% by the year 2030.