1. French election rally: The euro surged 1.2% against the dollar on Monday after pro-European reformer Emmanuel Macron emerged as the front runner to become the next French president.
The independent candidate topped far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of voting Sunday. They will face off in a second round on May 7.
France’s benchmark stock index gained 4% in early trading, led by a strong performance from banking stocks.
The difference between yields on French and German government bonds has narrowed on Monday, another sign that investors are relieved by the result.
2. China stocks tank: Chinese markets suffered their worst fall in three months after regulators signaled a further clampdown on leveraged trading and “abnormal phenomena” in the country’s capital markets.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell as much as 1.9%, while the smaller tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite closed 2.4% down.
3. Oil prices stabilize: U.S. crude futures have recovered some of the ground lost last week on fears of increased output from American producers.
Oil is now trading near $50.
4. Global market overview: U.S. stock futures were almost 1% higher early Monday.
European markets were having a banner day as investors cheered election results in France. Markets in the U.K., Germany and France were all up between 2% and 4%.
Asian markets ended the session mixed.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished 0.2% lower on Friday, while the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and the Nasdaq shed 0.1%.
5. Stock market movers — Bank of America, Jimmy Choo: Shares in Bank of America jumped 2% premarket after the bank reported better than expected results on Friday.
Shares in Jimmy Choo surged 6.5% in London after the luxury shoe maker put itself up for sale.
6. Coming this week:
Monday — French election reaction; German business climate survey
Tuesday — U.S. data on new home sales and consumer confidence
Wednesday — Steve Mnuchin speaks on tax reform; Twitter reports earnings; Crude oil inventories report
Thursday — Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon report earnings; ECB meeting; U.S. trade balance data
Friday — GM earnings; U.S. and U.K. first quarter GDP data
— Alec Macfarlane contributed reporting.
