NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 08:41 ET — Market closed
- Germany’s DAX last closed up 0.57% at 24,490.41; Frankfurt markets are shut on Jan. 1 for New Year’s Day.
- Infineon and Rheinmetall led DAX gains on the last session; BMW and Deutsche Börse lagged.
- Next up: inflation and jobs data in Europe and the U.S., plus early-2026 central bank and earnings signals.
Germany’s blue-chip DAX ended its last session of 2025 up 0.57% at 24,490.41, while the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day. U.S. stock markets are also closed, leaving investors without fresh Wall Street cues.
The holiday pause lands after a strong year for European equities and a late-December push that left benchmarks near record territory. For Frankfurt, the question now is whether the 2025 drivers—easing rates, bank strength and a bid for industrial winners—can carry into early January with liquidity returning.
European stocks finished the year with momentum even as trading thinned into the holidays. “Investors have been looking beyond the usual suspects for value and diversification,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, in a note on the late-year rotation. Reuters
On the DAX’s last trading day, gains in technology, food and industrials helped lift the index, while the mid-cap MDAX rose 0.54% and the TecDAX added 0.62%, Investing.com data showed. Infineon climbed 2.69% and Rheinmetall rose 2.29%, while BMW slipped 0.43% and exchange operator Deutsche Börse fell 0.22%.
Macro headlines stayed in focus. Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last meeting of 2025 showed policymakers broadly agreed on rate cuts, while revealing divisions on risks to the U.S. economy, a Reuters report said.
Geopolitics remained a live wire for energy and defence-linked names. Reuters reported that oil held firm as hopes of an imminent Russia-Ukraine peace deal faded, after Russia accused Kyiv of an attempted strike on President Vladimir Putin’s residential complex—an allegation Ukraine denied.
In the broader European backdrop, the STOXX 600 slipped 0.1% on the final trading day of 2025 but finished the year up 16.66%, Reuters reported. Germany’s DAX rose about 23% over 2025, outpacing France’s CAC 40, while Britain’s FTSE 100 gained around 22%.
Before next session: the Xetra and Börse Frankfurt calendar lists Jan. 1 as a non-trading day, with regular weekday trading otherwise scheduled. That puts the next Frankfurt session on Friday, Jan. 2.
Data risk returns quickly. Germany’s Bundesbank lists the next update for the HICP flash estimate for December 2025 on Jan. 6, while the ECB’s statistics calendar shows the euro area seasonally adjusted HICP flash estimate on Jan. 7; in the U.S., the BLS calendar shows the December 2025 jobs report on Jan. 9 and CPI on Jan. 13.
On the corporate side, SAP—Europe’s biggest software group and a heavyweight in Frankfurt—has scheduled its Q4 and fiscal 2025 preliminary results for Jan. 29. Investors also have the ECB’s next monetary policy meeting on Feb. 4–5 in view as they reassess the path for European rates.
Technically, traders will be watching whether the DAX can build on the 24,490 level and make a clean push toward the 25,000 mark, a round-number level that often acts as a psychological pivot. Options-implied volatility—essentially the market’s own forecast of future swings, backed out from option prices—rose to 15 on the DAX volatility index on the last session, Investing.com reported.
