The European currency beats the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar on Monday’s session as investors were relieved over the victory of centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron versus far-right Marine Le Pen in the first round of presidential elections in France.
The polls showed that the anti-euro nationalist candidate outperformed Le Pan more than 30 percent of the votes in just two weeks. The high session of the euro immediately placed the greenback higher by 2 percent versus the currency.
The results last Sunday minimized the expectations of an anti-establishment surprise on the weight of Britain’s last vote to separate itself from the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as the president of United States.
Previously, the euro was up by 1.22 percent versus the dollar with $1.0857, close from its high of $1.0935 it notched, following Sunday’s primary indications vote that gave triumph to Macron. His victory was already predicted a week ago.
With the yen, the euro was 1.91 percent higher versus the Japanese currency at 119.19 and the U.S. dollar was 0.64 percent up against the 109.77 yen. This is driven by the markets relaxation on the French presidential election as investors deserted the yen’s “safe-haven currency” status.
Senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp Richard Franulovich said the plunge of euro from its highs seemed to be profit-taking.
Credit Agricole and French bank strategist said their positioning scale suggested that the European currency had been purchased the most last week. This shows that several traders had already shut current bets over the greenback.