“The results from the first round of vote counting strengthen our confidence that, from this summer, France will have a president in favor of reforms for the first time.” Comments from Stefan Kreuzkamp, Chief investment Officer Deutsche Asset Management

The French OAT- German Bund yield spreads tighten by 16bps as market's pricing in the likely outcome of Macron winning the elections as many French political leaders now support him in an effort to block the Far-right Le Pen.

According to Philip Dicken, Head of European Equities and Francis Ellison Client Portfolio Manager, European Equities at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, if Emmanuel Macron were elected, the environment would suit active investors and reinforce their potential to find attractive opportunities among high-quality stocks.

According to Toby Nangle, Global Co-Head of Asset Allocation, Head of MultiAsset, EMEA and Maya Bhandari, Portfolio Manager, Multi-Asset, Columbia Threadneedle reduces weighting to US equities from neutral to underweight in multi-asset portfolios...

Macro-economic figures are currently strong almost everywhere in the World. The ISM index is back to its local high in the US, PMI indices are also well oriented in Europe, China has stopped being a concern and even Japan's growth seems to be coming back, albeit slowly.