Following the somewhat centrist victory in the first round of the French Presidential Elections global markets appear to be have gained some risk appetite back with Asian equities reaching a near 2 year high on Tuesday. The election also helped lift EUR and put downward pressure on safe-haven instruments. It is therefore likely that European equities will have a strong start this morning.
French Polls show Emmanuel Macron defeating anti-euro nationalist Marine Le Pen by as much as 30 percentage points in the second round of the French presidential election on May 7th.
Markets are likely to see additional impetus with President Trump promising an announcement on US Tax Reforms on Wednesday.
EUR was holding steady at $1.0885, retaining most of Monday’s 1.3 percent gain where EUR posted its strongest one-day performance in nearly a year; lifting EUR to a near 6 month high.
EUR gains had weighed on the dollar index, which touched a four-week low overnight. The index was marginally higher at 99.134, failing to make up most of Monday’s 0.9 percent loss.
USD advanced 0.4 percent to 110.32 JPY extending Monday’s 0.5 percent jump as investors sold off the “safe-haven” JPY.
Oil recovered marginally, following a week of losses, although gains were restricted by concerns that purported output cuts may not affect the current oversupply in global markets.
Gold recovered from last week’s lows of 7095 trading up to 1278.06 in early trading before retracing back to 1270.28.
