Short DAX at 7740

Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government won senate approval on Thursday for its controversial €25bn austerity programme, overcoming dissent from the prime minister’s allies as well as opposition parties.
 
China delivered a strong vote of confidence in the euro on Friday when Premier Wen Jiabao said that Europe would always be one of the main investment markets for China’s foreign exchange reserves.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on a state visit to China, Mr Wen said “Europe will certainly overcome its difficulties”.

The comments come a week after China bought several hundred million dollars worth of Spanish bonds, signalling a return by Asian investors to the eurozone’s peripheral markets after an absence of two months.

Mr Wen’s remarks are the strongest sign yet that Chinese confidence in the European economy and in the euro - which breached $1.30 for the first time in two months on Friday - has been restored since the launch of the massive rescue package by European leaders in mid-May.

“The European market has been in the past, is now and will be in the future one of the main investment markets for China’s foreign exchange reserves,” Mr Wen said. China’s stockpile of foreign exchange reserves worth $2,450bn is the largest in the world.
 
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Daimler AG’s E-Class Mercedes-Benz, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s new 5-Series and Volkswagen AG’s revamped Audi A8 are attracting wealthy buyers in the U.S. and China, prompting the German carmakers to boost deliveries.

Daimler raised a full-year forecast yesterday after second- quarter profit beat analysts’ estimates. BMW this week lifted its 2010 sales and earnings projections. Audi’s first-half increase in vehicle sales beat both BMW and Daimler’s.

“The Chinese appetite for German nameplates is absolutely bottomless,” said Sascha Gommel, a Frankfurt-based analyst with Commerzbank AG. “There are more than 900,000 millionaires in China and many of them are bursting to show off their wealth.”

The German carmakers are posting gains in China, which passed the U.S. last year as the biggest auto market, as new models attract buyers. BMW has said the new 5-Series is sold out, while Audi is benefitting from the new A8 sedan. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz aims to add market share with an extended E-Class sedan, its first vehicle for Chinese consumers.

Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi are adding workers and cutting summer factory breaks to boost production as demand for luxury cars returns quicker than they had planned.[bn:WBTKR=DAI:GY]

Daimler [] has hired 1,800 temporary workers and added Saturday shifts at German assembly plants making the SLS gull- wing sports car, GLK sport-utility vehicle and E-Class convertible. Audi is putting on extra shifts. BMW has added 5,000 temporary workers and will give all employees covered by a wage agreement 1,060 euros on average in one-time payment.

Flared Headlights

BMW’s new 5-Series, which abandoned the flared headlights and small kidney-shaped grill of the previous version, is sold out in all markets and customers are waiting three to four months for deliveries, the Munich-based carmaker said June 23. The sedan, which starts at $44,550 in the U.S., went on sale in the country last month and in Europe in late March.
 
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