U.S. Market Unmoved By French Elections

As investors consolidated the results of the French presidential elections where centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron emerged as the winner, the U.S. markets remained unimpressed by market close despite lodging gains during Monday trading.

U.S. government debt prices inched lower while 10-year Treasury note rose by 2.3%. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond also moved higher to around 3.01%.

Although the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite recorded all-time intraday highs on Monday on news of Macron’s victory with both indexes breaking out of their individual record intraday highs upon market open and also managed a record close. The Dow Jones industrial average also rose up considerably higher with Apple being one of the top performers.

Analysts stated that this was due to the market’s relief regarding the possibility of another Brexit situation should Marine Le Pen who is the anti European Union won instead of Macron.

Stocks around the world also rallied as early as April 23 which was the first round of the French elections and on growing confidence with the European Union. Le Pen’s candidacy then had alarmed the markets due to her campaign.

The euro also posted gains against the US dollar for the first time in six months on Macron’s victory from having previously traded at $1.093.

As the attention on the presidential elections in France is slowly going down, the markets are now looking to the upcoming legislative elections in the country in June which would be crucial to Macron as it would determine the newly elected president’s ability to implement his economic plan. This includes reforms in the labor market. During his campaign, Macron vowed to reduce public sector employment to reduce public spending but assured support for self-employment through new protection and laws.

The trading activity in the U.S. was also sluggish despite the markets closely focusing on the elections but a number of stocks rallied to new highs including Coach Inc (NYSE:COH) whose stock rallied by 0.63% on news that the company would buy Kate Spade.

However, the top performer in the U.S. market was Apple, with the stock hitting another record on bullishness brought by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) Inc which has boosted its stake in Apple Inc by $20 billion in the past couple of months. Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose up by 3.2% and hit an all-time high of $153.50 sending Apple’s market cap to $801.37 billion.