The first round of the French presidential election defined price action at the start of the trading week. The Euro outperformed after centrist Emmanuel Macron emerged in the lead, putting to rest concerns about a runoff between two eurosceptics (Marine Le Pen from the right and Jean-Luc Melechon from the left).
The election outcome brightened spirits across the financial markets. Most Asian shares advanced and the perennially anti-risk Japanese Yen suffered deep losses. The Australian Dollar led the way higher among the non-Euro majors as investors’ chipper mood bolstered demand for higher-yielding currencies.
Optimism has spilled over onto European bourses in early morning trade and S&P 500 futures are pointing decidedly higher ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. This suggests that overnight price trends probably have scope for follow-through, at least in the near term.
April’s German IFO business confidence survey headlines the data docket. Expectations point to a slight improvement but this seems unlikely to materially alter price action. Not only is the Euro clearly focused elsewhere, but the figures mean relatively little for the immediate ECB policy trends.
Asia Session
European Session
** All times listed in GMT. See the full DailyFX economic calendar here.
