Stocks dipped and the euro fell yesterday from highs touched after pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron’s emphatic and expected victory in France’s presidential election as investors cashed in recent gains.
European equities dipped, with French shares underperforming the wider market after having hit their highest in more than nine years on Friday.
The euro fell the most against the dollar since late March, having risen in overnight trade to just above $1.10 when opinion polls signalled the scale of Macron’s victory over anti-euro nationalist Marine Le Pen.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 touched a record high before turning negative in late morn-ing trading.
“The French election results came in as expected and the market had already factored that in,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
World stocks, as measured by MSCI’s 46-country world index hit a record high and the main measure of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan rose 0.8 per cent.
Shares resumed trading in Tokyo after a three-day market holiday. The Nikkei closed up 2.3 per cent at a 17-month high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 15.1 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 20,991.84, the S&P 500 lost 2.98 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 2,396.31 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 12.48 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 6,088.28. The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.13 per cent while France’s CAC 40 index fell 0.9 per cent.
Emerging market stocks rose 0.56 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.77 per cent higher. In currency markets, the dollar index rose 0.45 per cent, with the euro down 0.64 per cent to $1.0925. The euro earlier touched a six-month high of $1.1024.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.11 per cent versus the greenback at 112.86 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2938, down 0.32 per cent on the day.
“The euro couldn’t sustain the rally as it took to consolidating a three per cent spike since France’s presidential vote started two weeks earlier,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.
“Nevertheless, the euro appears to have emerged from the French vote with a relatively bullish bias as dissipating political risk should intensify the spotlight on the European Union bloc’s improving economic prospects.”
Oil prices, which hit almost six-month lows last week on worries about a global glut of crude, slid further even as Opec hinted there could be an extension to the current production cuts, which expire in June.
US crude fell 0.61 per cent to $45.94 per barrel and Brent was last at $48.70, down 0.81 per cent on the day.