WASHINGTON: U.S. stock futures were steady on Sunday as traders breathed a sigh of relief after the French presidential election concluded with centrist Emmanuel Macron defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, as was widely expected. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq traded marginally lower after opening slightly higher at 6 p.m. ET. The implied open was still higher for all three benchmarks. The euro climbed to its highest level in six months, breaking above $1.10 for the first time since the U.S. presidential election. With more than 44 million of France’s 47 million registered voters accounted for, official Interior Ministry figures on Sunday confirmed Macron had been elected president with 65.31 percent of valid votes cast so far. Polls leading up to the vote also had Macron winning by a large margin. “We’ve been pricing in this thing for about two weeks now,” said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group. “Just look at Friday’s trading action; we surged into the close.”
The Dow average jumped 56 points on Friday with most of those gains coming in the final two hours of trading. This is the second bullet global markets have dodged from European elections. Earlier this year, the Netherlands far-right party — led by Geert Wilders — came in second place in Dutch elections, a disappointment considering the party led most polls leading up to the election. “This is a defining moment for Europe,” said Alberto Gallo, partner at Algebris Investments. “We said in January that this was going to be a make-or-break year for Europe and this is a positive.”
