German Stocks Jump; Oil Prices Ease on G7 Reserve Release Plan

11:49 AM EDT, 10/02/2026 (MT Newswires) -- German shares ended higher Friday, with the blue-chip DAX index gaining 1.13%, as oil prices fell following an agreement by major economies to release oil reserves after a French proposal. The Group of Seven leaders agreed to release 100 million barrels of emergency reserves through the International Energy Agency over four months to help stabilize global energy markets amid disruptions linked to the war between the US and Iran, according to a statement from French President Emmanuel Macron's office. The release will include a substantial amount of diesel during the first 20 days. US President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that Europe agreed to release a "massive amount" of diesel oil ⁠stocks, with the process set to "begin immediately." Meanwhile, flash data from Eurostat showed annual inflation in the euro area rose to 3.8% in September, against August's 3.2% and the market forecast of 3.7%. The core rate, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, stood at 2.5%, as expected, up from the previous 2.4%. "The increase from 3.2% marks the fastest jump since March, the first month of the Middle East war. While it's still mainly driven by energy prices, broader inflationary pressures are mounting as energy prices are expected to stay elevated," research firm ING said. Back home, sentiment in Germany's chemical industry improved for a second straight month in September as the ifo Institute's business climate index jumped to 5.5 points from -2.6 points in August, supported by rising export demand, inventory restocking, and increased infrastructure and defense spending. However, ifo cautioned that the recovery appears "fragile" as the industry's overall order backlog remains "very low." In corporate news, Metzler Capital Markets trimmed its price target for DWS Group (DWS.F), saying it is "staying sceptical" on the German asset manager due to valuation concerns. "Ahead of DWS's Q3/26 results release (scheduled for 28 October), we reiterate our SELL-recommendation on DWS-shares with a finetuned TP of EUR 62.0 (62.6). In brief, we expect fairly strong results for Q3/26e. However, we believe that this should not come as a big surprise given the YTD performance of international equity markets. According to our assessment, DWS-shares' current valuation is somewhat demanding, for example as measured by a PBV 2026e of 1.7, while we forecast 14% ROE 2027e. Relative to the peers, we consider the current valuation of DWS shares as a bit stretched, too," Metzler wrote in a note. DWS ended the trading day down 0.29% on Xetra.