Morning Briefing: Equities gain, gold falls after French election

Equities gain, gold falls after French election

The French presidential election Sunday has put centrist Emmanuel Macron in the lead after the first-round vote and delighted world equity markets, while leading to a pull-back from gold which has seen prices drop 1.3 per cent in early trading.

The next round is on May 7 but analysts are confident of Macron defeating far-right challenger Marine Le Penn. Paris’ CAC index soared more than 4 per cent in early trading Monday while European peers also saw large gains; Frankfurt up almost 3 per cent, London up almost 2 per cent.

Asian markets were mixed as investors digested the French vote and considered regional issues including some positive data for Japan, and a crackdown on shadow banking in China.

Tokyo led gains which also included Sydney and Hong Kong; Shanghai was down by more than 1 per cent.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open higher. Canadian wholesale sales data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,547.76 (-0.15 per cent)	-0.24 per cent	+14.13 per cent
TSX Composite	15,614.48 (-0.07 per cent)	+1.11 per cent	+12.54 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,248.87 (+1.89 per cent)	-1.27 per cent	+14.79 per cent
German DAX	12,386.07 (+2.80 per cent)	+2.67 per cent	+19.40 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,431.38 (-1.02 per cent)	-1.67 per cent	+8.08 per cent
Japan Nikkei	18,875.88 (+1.37 per cent)	-2.01 per cent	+7.42 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
52.40 (+0.85 per cent)	50.06 (+0.89 per cent)	1272.50 (-1.29 per cent)	U$0.7441
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7573

Basic NAFTA could be agreed mid-2018

The leader of one of America’s most influential business groups believes that a basic agreement on NAFTA will be reached by the middle of 2018 as business leaders call for certainty.

The existing three-way trade deal between the US, Canada and Mexico is under threat from President Trump’s administration which has called for changes to better benefit the US.

Thomas Donahue, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce told Reuters that Trump wants to get the deal done to avoid causing economic damage from prolonged uncertainty.

“The bottom line is we need to move forward on this deal. It is critical to our economic and geopolitical well-being. Period," said Donahue in a visit to Mexico over the weekend.