The leading German index was little changed at 18,097 points at the start of trading on Thursday. Investors are eagerly awaiting indications as to whether the European Central Bank (ECB) could make the eagerly awaited first interest rate cut in June.

Experts were optimistic. The persistently high inflation and strong economy in the USA had dampened investors' hopes of an interest rate turnaround at the Fed's next meeting. The monetary authorities are trying to keep inflation in check by tightening monetary policy without choking off the economy. "The situation is different in the eurozone, where the engine is not running smoothly at all and at the same time inflation has almost reached the two percent target and the ECB therefore has no choice but to cut interest rates," commented Jochen Stanzl, chief analyst at broker CMC Markets.

Among the individual stocks, K&S came under pressure with a drop of almost four percent. The experts at US financial services provider Stifel had downgraded the shares to "sell" from "hold". The target price was also lowered from 14.00 euros to 12.50 euros. This was due to the gloomy outlook for the financial results of the world's largest salt producer in the coming quarters. The shares of Borussia Dortmund, which fell by around 1.5 percent after losing a match against Atletico Madrid, were also dropped from the portfolios.

(Report by Zuzanna Szymanska, edited by Sabine Ehrhardt. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)