Closing post
And finally…. France’s stock market has ended a choppy week, deep in the red.
The CAC 40 stock index fell 2.7% today, taking its losses this week to over 6%, as worries over the upcoming national assembly elections revive market memories of the UK budget rout of 2022.
The premium charged for lending to France, over Germany, remains at a seven-year high too (see earlier post for details).
As Bob Savage of BNY Mellon puts it:
The biggest story of the week is in France post the EU parliamentary vote and the Macron snap election call.
The spread between German and French bonds is up 27 basis points in the week back to 2017 highs – trading 95bps today. The FinMin LeMaire warns of a financial crisis.
More here:
And here’s the rest of today’s business news:
Both th US dollar and the gold price have rallied today.
The dollar is up agains tthe euro and the pound, while gold has gained around 1% to $2,320 per ounce.
Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, explains:
The dollar’s strength came primarily because of a weaker euro, which tumbled to below the $1.07 handle amid ongoing political turmoil in France – something which also hurt European indices and undermined other risk-sensitive currencies.
Europe’s mainland indices were showing losses of 1.5% to 3.2%. The resulting risk-off trade further boosted the appeal of the precious metal as the spread between French and German 10-year government bonds continued to widen.
