On Sunday, the final French presidential candidates were chosen. As polling previously suggested, centralist Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen advanced to the final round of the elections.
The euro shot up 2 cents against the dollar in the wake of the announcement, thanks to Macron’s lead on Le Pen. That’s a 5-month high for the currency pair. Macron’s pro-euro and open market agenda helped the politician gain 23.8% of the vote.
The election results spurred a rally in equity markets. France’s stock index, the CAC 40, has jolted upwards this morning. The index is up 4% at €5207. Italy’s FTSE MIB is up 4.3% at €20135. Germany’s DAX 30 is up 2.4% at €12385. Britain’s FTSE 100 is up 1.7% at £7181.
The positivity has spread to the US; DJ 30 is up 0.95% at $20685, Russell 2000 is up 1.7% at $1399.10, S&P 500 is up 1.14% at $2371.75 and the Nasdaq is up 1.1% at $5496.75.
Commodity Corner
After a 7% sell-off last week, crude oil is tipping upwards this morning, at $50 per barrel. The commodity’s bearish bets were spurred by concerns over US shake oil production. Traders feared that an increase in US shale output could undermine OPEC’s efforts to curtail supply.
Gold fell sharply after perceived risk in the market waned. The precious metal plummeted 1.5% before rebounding slightly this morning. A bullion of gold will cost you $1271.53.