Asian Markets Swing Upward in Wake of French Election -<br />By GERRY DOYLEMAY 7, 2017<br />Markets in Asia climbed on Monday, starting just hours after the polls closed in France<br />and showed a decisive victory by the centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.<br />“The election seems to be on won investors’ minds, and the possible implications<br />that may or may not have with U. S. and China relations,” Stephen Innes, a senior trader in Singapore at the foreign currency specialist Oanda, said in a text message.<br />“The French election result confirms our view that markets until recently had overstated European political risks,” strategists at an investment<br />institute sponsored by BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, wrote Monday in a research note after Mr. Macron’s win.<br />“Italian political risk and the country’s fragile banking system could move back into focus soon, however.”<br />Currency traders in Asia said a muted euro movement meant markets appeared to have priced in the Macron victory already.<br />Markets in Asia were also reacting to a strong jobs report in the United States on Friday, which suggested the global economy was on solid<br />footing even as it reinforced the case for the United States Federal Reserve to continue building on recent interest rate increases.<br />China was an outlier; stocks in Shanghai dipped, with the SSEC falling about 0.85 percent over the course of the day..<br />Shares in South Korea rose about 0.55 percent in the morning, and ended the day up 2.53 percent.
