Monday, after the centrist candidate swept to victory in the first round of the French presidential election; so does the Euro, which scaled five-month highs against the dollar in early Asian Trading. The Euro surged 0.9% to $1.0868 after earlier rising as high as $1.0940, Euro’s highest since November 10, against the yen, and it jumped 2.3% to 119.66, after reaching a one-month rise of 120.935.
The pro-EU, ex banker, former economy minister and Centrist: Emmanuel Macron emerged victorious as the leader of the first round of voting and qualified for a May 7 runoff, together with the second finisher, far-right leader: Marine Le Pen. This lifted the single currency and triggered stop-loss orders, as what market participants said.
Mitsuo Imaizumi, Tokyo-based chief and foreign-exchange strategist for Daiwa Securities said: “We saw the big moves in the early trading hours when liquidity was thin, so we might not see anything dramatic for the rest of the Asian session.”
The rise of euro dented the dollar index, which tracks the United States currency against a basket of six competitors. The dollar slumped 1% to 98.998, though its losses were eased as the greenback gained against the perceived yen. The dollar rose 0.9% at 110.04 yen, accelerating above the 110-yen level for the first time in nearly two weeks.
In accordance to this, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to 2.246% in Asian Trade, up from Friday’s U.S. close of 2.236%
The French vote and the euro’s rise come ahead of a European Central Bank policy meeting on Thursday, at which the central bank’s ultra-easy stance is set to remain unchanged.
In accordance to these events, the market largely shrugged off United States President: Donald Trump’s promise on Friday that a big announcement was approaching next week, which focuses on overhauling the U.S. Tax code.