SINGAPORE - Asian stock markets edged down on Tuesday following a flat close on Wall Street, as investors searched for the next catalyst following France's presidential election, while oil inched higher on expectations OPEC supply cuts will be extended.
Financial spreadbetters expect Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 to all open flat.
The South Korean stock market, which finished at a record high on Monday, is closed for Tuesday's presidential election.
Liberal Moon Jae-in is widely expected to win the presidency, following months of leadership vacuum after former President Park Geun-hye was removed on charges of bribery and abuse of power.
The polls opened at 6 a.m. (2100 GMT on Monday) and will close at 8 p.m. (1100 GMT). The winner is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday after the Election Commission releases the official result.
Allies and neighbors are closely watching the election amid escalating tensions over North Korea's accelerating development of weapons since it conducted its fourth nuclear test in January last year. It conducted a fifth test in September and is believed ready for another.
North Korea would be keen to see a Moon victory. Its official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary on Monday the time had come to put confrontation behind the Koreas by ending conservative rule in the South.
"South Korean markets had not registered significant risk-off sentiment similar to other economies pre-elections, and this is no surprise," Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG in Singapore, wrote in a note.
"The largely similar stance on policies by the Presidential candidates provides little chance of surprise as compared to last week's French election. Meanwhile, the filling of the political vacuum could go a long way to benefitting the economy."
The Korean won weakened 0.25 percent on Tuesday, with the dollar buying 1,135.52 won.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2 percent on Tuesday.
Japan's Nikkei was slightly lower.
China's CSI 300 index retreated 0.3 percent in its sixth straight session of losses amid concerns over tighter financial regulations. Hong Kong's Hang Seng reversed earlier losses to trade up 0.35 percent.
Taiwan stocks pulled back to trade 0.25 percent lower on profit taking after earlier surpassing the 10,000-point mark to hit a two-year high.
The MSCI World index, which touched a record high overnight, dropped about 0.1 percent.
The dollar was flat at 113.285 yen, retaining most of Monday's 0.4 percent gain.
The dollar index was also steady at 99.11.
The euro was steady at $1.0927 after tumbling 0.7 percent on Monday.
"The euro's retreat was driven solely by profit-taking. I think it is going to regain momentum over time," said Yukio Ishizuki, senior currency analyst at Daiwa Securities.
French stocks slumped 0.9 percent overnight, their biggest one-day loss
in almost three weeks, as investors took profits following strong gains
in the run-up to Sunday's vote that saw the market favorite, centrist Emmanuel Macron, elected president.
Germany's DAX closed 0.2 percent lower, while Britain's FTSE was marginally higher.
On Wall Street, all three major indexes closed flat, holding near recent all-time highs. The CBOE Volatility Index closed at 9.77, its lowest since December 1993.
In commodities, oil market sentiment swung between optimism over statements from major oil-producing countries that supply cuts could be extended into 2018 and lingering concerns over slowing demand and a rise in U.S. crude output.
Us crude inched up 0.1 percent to $46.47 a barrel.
Global benchmark Brent also rose 0.1 percent to $49.39.
Copper remained close to the four-month low touched on Monday after data showed a sharp drop on imports into China, the world's biggest consumer.
London copper slipped 0.1 percent to $5,481.50 a tonne on Tuesday, after falling to as low as $5,462.50 on Monday.
Gold recovered from a seven-week trough touched on Monday. Spot gold rose about 0.1 percent to $1,226.60 an ounce. (Reporting by Nichola Saminather; Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Eric Meijer and Sam Holmes)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Euro hits 6-month high vs dollar, 1-yr high vs yen
TOKYO, May 8 (Reuters) - The euro firmed and U.S. stock futures hit a record high on Monday after centrist Emmanuel Macron comfortably won the French presidential election.
The euro rose to as high as $1.1024, its highest in about six months, before stepping back to $1.0998, flat from late U.S. levels last week.
The common currency hit a one-year high of 124.58 yen and a five-month high of 1.08865 Swiss franc .
"Emmanuel Macron's victory gives markets a much-deserved breather from European politics," said Bill Street, head of investments for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at State Street Global Advisors in London.
"This result, combined with last week's preliminary Greek debt agreement, will be enough to support a short-term relief rally. Looking forward, Macron only offers upside surprises."
The S&P 500 mini futures gained 0.2 percent to hit a record high of 2,403.75 in early trade before giving up the gains to trade flat.
The Nikkei futures pointed to a rise of 1.4 percent in the Nikkei average to 1 1/2-year high when Japanese stock market reopen at 9:00 a.m. (0000GMT) after five-day Golden Week holidays.
"Political risk in Europe has been considered as a major market theme this year. But in the Netherlands (anti-EU party leader Geert) Wilders lost in March. The French election is now out of the way," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
"And in Germany the ruling Christian Democrats are recovering. The political risks in Europe have receded," he said.
Pollsters' projections gave Macron a winning margin of around 65 percent to 35 - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had suggested.
The centrist's emphatic victory brought comfort to investors and European allies alike, who had been nervous of the risk of another populist upheaval to follow Britain's vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump's election as U.S. president - neither of which had been predicted by pollsters or bookmakers.
Still, the euro's rise was slight compared with its 2 percent surge after the first-round results on April 23, when polls had been much tighter, when there had been fears that French voters would be left with a choice between two eurosceptic, radical candidates.
Stock markets had a welcome surprise on Friday from solid U.S. employment numbers. Nonfarm payrolls surged by 211,000 last month after a paltry gain of 79,000 in March, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4 percent, near a 10-year low and well below the most recent Federal Reserve median forecast for full employment..
The hiring rebound supports the U.S. central bank's contention that the pedestrian 0.7 percent annualised economic growth in the first quarter was likely "transitory," and its optimism that economic activity would expand at a "moderate" pace.
U.S. 10-year Treasury futures dipped on Monday suggesting the 10-year Treasury yield could tick higher from its closing level last week of around 2.35 percent.
Crude oil prices extended their rebound from Friday's five-month lows, as investors bet key producers could extend output cuts beyond an agreed June cut-off.
Saudi Arabia's OPEC governor said on Friday there was an emerging consensus among member and non-member countries on the need to extend the output-control agreement beyond June to help clear the supply glut.
Brent futures traded at $49.54 per barrel, up 44 cents or 0.9 percent. (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly in London; Editing by Eric Meijer)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
BERLIN - Europe's political establishment entered 2017 in a state of panic. Britain had voted to leave the European Union six months before and the United States had just elected a president who was hostile to their grand project and the values it stood for.
The same forces that had led to Brexit and Donald Trump - popular anger with distant elites, economic inequality and immigration - threatened to hit the continent hard in a year in which Europe's largest countries were holding elections.
The biggest risk of all was France, a country with an ailing economy, historic ambivalence toward the EU and a politician, in National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who seemed well positioned to seize on voter fears.
Instead, on Sunday, Le Pen was soundly defeated by Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old independent who ran on an unashamedly pro-European platform.
Macron urged the French to embrace rather than reject globalization. And he vowed to work with Germany to relaunch the European Union, a project long seen as a guarantor of peace and prosperity but one which is now struggling to find its "raison d'etre" after years of crisis.
Macron's victory represents a reprieve for Europe and the liberal democratic values for which it has stood for more than half a century.
The nightmare scenarios that were whispered about in European capitals in early 2017 have not materialized. Europe has been given another chance. Those are the main messages from Macron's victory and they were reflected in the reactions from Europe on Sunday.
"Hurrah Macron President! There is hope for Europe!" Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman called it a victory for a "strong united Europe" and for German-French friendship.
WARNING
But the French vote was also a warning. Le Pen's National Front won 35 percent of the vote, nearly double what her father Jean-Marie secured in 2002, a result which hit the nation like an earthquake at the time, triggering a broad "Republican front" to block him.
In this election the sense of shock and anti-Le Pen front proved far weaker. On Sunday night she took to a stage in Paris and called on "all patriots" to join her in opposition to the new president.
Nigel Farage, former leader of Britain's UKIP party and a leading campaigner for Brexit, said what many in Europe may be thinking when Sunday night celebrations wear off: "If Marine sticks in there, she can win in 2022."
Macron and his fellow European leaders face a formidable challenge over the next five years to prevent that from happening.
For his part, Macron must unite a deeply divided country and deliver on his promise to inject new life into its moribund economy by delivering jobs for young people and hope for the immigrants in depressed working class suburbs around France's major cities.
Former U.S. president Barack Obama who openly backed Macron last week and whose message of hope served as a model for the French candidate is a cautionary tale for what can happen when some promises go unfulfilled.
"Macron has 12 to 15 months to take the necessary decisions so that the benefits are visible before the end of his term," said a senior German official who requested anonymity.
At the European level, he must convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel - who looks on track to win re-election in September after another strong performance by her conservatives in a regional vote on Sunday - to develop a common vision for taking Europe forward.
The good news is that Macron and Merkel are likely to have other like-minded leaders to work with. Mark Rutte, the liberal prime minister of the Netherlands, fended off a challenge from far-right Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders in an election in March.
And next year may see the return of another young pro-European centrist in Matteo Renzi, who was forced to resign as Italian prime minister in December, but now looks on course for a comeback after regaining the leadership of his Democratic Party (PD) in a primary vote last week.
"Hard to overemphasize how much this will change the narrative about the EU. No longer the world's sick man," tweeted Nicolas Veron, an economist at Brussels think tank Bruegel.
Still, the anti-establishment wave seems unlikely to disappear anytime soon. In Poland and Hungary, right-wing governments are already flouting EU rules.
And opposition politicians like Le Pen and Wilders have gained a stronger platform from which to promote their messages.
They may also learn lessons from their recent defeats.
Le Pen said on Sunday that the National Front would be completely overhauled. Her deputy said the party would get a new name. And her father Jean-Marie said her campaign had been undermined by its proposals to quit the euro and the European Union, suggesting they might temper policies that spooked many French voters.
"Even if the globalists have won today, it doesn't mean that the populists won't win tomorrow," said Daniele Antonucci of Morgan Stanley.
(Reporting by European bureaus; writing by Noah Barkin; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Richard Balmforth)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS - Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron clashed over their vision of France's future and ways of handling terrorism in an ill-tempered televised debate on Wednesday ahead of Sunday's run-off vote for the presidency.
The two went into the debate with opinion polls showing Macron, 39, maintaining a strong lead of 20 percentage points over the National Front's Le Pen, 48, in what is widely seen as France's most important election in decades.
For Le Pen, the debate, watched by millions, was a last major chance to persuade voters of the merits of her program which includes cracking down on illegal immigration and ditching the euro currency.
In angry exchanges, Le Pen played up Macron's background as a former investment banker and economy minister, painting him as a continuation of the outgoing unpopular Socialist government and a backer of rampant globalization. He accused her of not offering solutions to problems such as France's chronic unemployment.
But the sharpest exchange was over national security, a sensitive issue in a country where more than 230 people have been killed by Islamist militants since 2015.
Le Pen accused Macron of being complacent in confronting the threat of Islamist fundamentalism. "You have no plan (on security) but you are indulgent with Islamist fundamentalism," she said.
Macron retorted that terrorism would be his priority if he is elected and accused Le Pen of being simplistic. "What you are proposing is snake oil," he said, referring to her proposals to close France's borders.
"I will lead a fight against Islamist terrorism at every level. But what they are wanting, the trap they are holding out for us, is the one that you offer - civil war," he said..
"GLOBALIZATION GONE WILD"
Le Pen labeled Macron a "smirking banker" and said he represented unfettered globalization.
"Mr. Macron is the candidate of globalization gone wild, of Uberisation, of precariousness, of social brutality, of war by everybody against everybody ... of the butchering of France by big economic interests," she said, referring to the gig economy typified by U.S. app-based cab service Uber.
Macron hit back by calling Le Pen a liar, saying she was talking nonsense and that her rhetoric lacked substance.
On unemployment, Macron told Le Pen: "Your strategy is simply to tell a lot of lies and just to say what isn't going right in the country."
The two candidates, seated opposite one another at a table in the television studios, mapped out diametrically opposed visions for France. Macron calls for liberal reforms to kickstart the French economy, while Le Pen rails against the loss of French jobs through off-shoring and would adopt protectionist trade measures.
Macron finished only three points ahead of Le Pen in the first round on April 23, but he is widely expected now to pick up the bulk of votes from the Socialists and the center-right whose candidates were eliminated.
Though Le Pen has a mountain to climb, the campaign has been packed with surprises.
Upwards of 20 million viewers out of an electorate of close to 47 million were expected to tune in to the two-and-a-half hour debate.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday Le Pen reaffirmed she wanted to take France out of the euro and get a national currency back into French pockets within two years.
Wednesday's event marks the first time a National Front candidate has appeared in a run-off debate - an indication of the degree of acceptance Le Pen has secured for the once-pariah party by softening its image in an attempt to dissociate it from past xenophobic associations.
Outgoing President Hollande, hours before the two rivals sat down before the cameras, renewed a call to stop Le Pen and vote for Macron.
A Cevipof poll published on the website of Le Monde on Wednesday - one of the last big surveys before Sunday's vote - saw Macron getting 59 percent of votes versus 41 percent for Le Pen. An Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris Match, CNews and Sud Radio gave Macron a 60-40 lead.
His camp meanwhile said that, if elected, he might put back a deadline for cutting back reliance on nuclear power in the French energy mix - an announcement that sent EDF shares up 4.9 percent in heavy trade.
Assuming he wins, one of Macron's immediate tasks will be to build a parliamentary majority in follow-up elections in June to push through his program.
He heads only a fledgling movement called En Marche! (Onwards!) which has no representation in parliament.
A poll for Les Echos newspaper by OpinionWay-SLPV Analytics suggested Macron was rising to that challenge, showing his party set to emerge as the largest with between 249 and 286 seats in the 577-seat lower house, while the National Front was tipped to win 15 to 25.
(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Elizabeth Pineau, Simon Carraud, and Geert De Clercq; Writing by Adrian Croft; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
PARIS - Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said on Tuesday she was better placed than her rival, centrist Emmanuel Macron, to defend France's interests in what she called the "new world" of US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Le Pen, who rails against "uncontrolled globalization", hopes to channel the same nationalist, anti-establishment sentiment that propelled Trump to the White House and spurred Britain's vote to leave the European Union, and become the first woman to lead France.
She bills Macron, a pro-European Union former investment banker, as a stooge of banks and the elite.
"I think I'm best placed to talk to this new world that's emerging, to talk to the Russia of Putin, to the United States of Trump, to talk to the Britain of (Prime Minister Theresa) May ... to talk to the India of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi," she said in an interview.
She said that was "because all of those countries are more or less turning their backs on the ideology of free trade, of competition and of undermining social protection.
"So I feel much more in line with their political philosophy than with (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel's," she told Reuters, speaking at her campaign headquarters.
Behind her stood the French national flag and a poster with the slogan "Choosing France".
Despite the Brexit vote, Britain says it remains a defender of free trade. Trump has said he wants trade deals to work for the United States.
ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT
Le Pen goes into Sunday's decisive run-off the clear underdog, according to opinion polls. While her policies of economic nationalism and stinging anti-EU rhetoric strike a chord among workers in low-income areas, she struggles for support in France's main cities.
Macron calls her a demagogue and a heiress raised in a chateau, with no experience outside far-right politics.
The winner of the second round will lead a core member of the European Union and the NATO alliance, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and the euro zone's second largest economy.
Asked what she thought of the hurdles Trump had faced in his first 100 days in office, including his failure to push a repeal and replacement of Obamacare through Congress, a core campaign promise, she said:
"It shows the establishment exists and is trying to fight against the democratic result of the people. You can see that a part of the system is uniting to stop Donald Trump from putting in place the measures which were chosen by the people."
Asked about Trump's boast in a 2005 video about grabbing women by the genitals, she said: "It's true his comments were worthy of criticism but they were private comments ... what's most important is the policies he implements."
"I don't think that he's implementing policies which aim to roll back the rights of women," she added.
(Writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Richard Lough)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
