Euro Rises On Speculation Of Macron Win

 | Apr 24, 2017 08:04AM ET

The first round of the French presidential election is behind us and investors were relieved that Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen advanced to the second round of voting. Market participants now speculate that pro-growth centrist Macron will become France's next president. This initial assumption has pushed the euro to a high of 1.0923.

However, nothing is out until the runoff on May 7 and traders should bear in mind that even if Macron has good chances of winning the election, a Le Pen victory involves a higher risk for the euro. If Le Pen becomes president, the euro could free-fall towards parity with the U.S. dollar. For the moment, however, the market could price in the outcome of the second round in favor of Macron, so we may see a continuation of the upward movement in the near-term.

EUR/USD
The euro gapped higher at the weekly trading open and we realized a good profit with our buy order long at 1.0680. From a technical perspective, there could still be some room for further gains. If the euro climbs again above 1.0875 we see chances of an upward extension until 1.0950 and possibly even 1.10. However, considering the fact that the market often tends to close the opening gap, we may see the euro tumbling towards 1.0750 before there could be a continuation of the uptrend. For the bias to shift from bullish to bearish, it would need a significant break below 1.06 and further 1.05.