Germany’s benchmark blue-chip stock index, the DAX, briefly topped 18,000 points for the first time during trading on Wednesday morning, hitting 18,000.42 shortly after opening before dipping back below that mark. The DAX, which is made up of 40 large publicly traded German corporations, has been on a strong run in recent days despite struggles for the overall German economy. The DAX closed down .02% at 17,961.38 on Wednesday. Many of the companies in the DAX do significant business abroad, such as in the United States, and are less dependent on the domestic German market. Stocks have been boo…