FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The DAX continued to gain on Friday and is on its way to its November high. Before the German benchmark index slumped to a low below 23,000 points in the following days, it stood at 24,441 points. "The DAX remains on course, the year-end rally is underway," said capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from broker Robomarkets optimistically.

In the first minutes of trading, the stock market barometer rose by 0.5 percent to 24,420 points. According to Molnar, the last relevant hurdle is at 24,500 points. If this zone is sustainably overcome, the focus will shift to the record high of around 24,770 points from October.

Market sentiment is supportive. The so-called Fear & Greed Index, which measures whether investors are driven by fear or greed, is now back in neutral territory. Accordingly, sentiment continued to improve.

The MDax index of medium-sized stocks gained 0.8 percent to 30,148 points on Friday morning. The EuroStoxx 50 advanced 0.5 percent to 5,784 points and is also heading back toward its record high. The leading index of the eurozone had reached this level in mid-November at 5,818 points.

After initial disappointment over Oracle's quarterly figures and further high AI investments by the US software group, the DAX managed an impressive turnaround the day before. In doing so, it broke the correction trend that had developed since the record high in October. According to experts, after the interim high in November, the DAX would only have to break through the 24,500-point barrier to return to its record high.

The best-known Wall Street index, the Dow Jones Industrial, already did so on Thursday evening. It benefited for the second day in a row from the key interest rate cut in the US and reached a new record high. Technology stocks on the Nasdaq, on the other hand, struggled. Following Oracle's investment plans, concerns about the boom topic of artificial intelligence (AI) had returned to the forefront.

The AI engine is humming, but investors should keep an eye on the "fuel costs," warned Jefferies analyst Brent Thill in his response to Oracle. And that's exactly what they did, punishing the stock. Oracle shares plummeted by almost 11 percent. The Nasdaq stock exchange, which is predominantly composed of technology stocks, posted slight losses overall. /ck/zb