• Polls cited by French television Sunday indicate centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen will face each other in a May 7 runoff.
In a race that was too close to call up to the last minute, Macron, a pro-EU ex-banker and former economy minister who founded his own party only a year ago, had 23.9 percent of the votes against 21.4 percent for Le Pen, according to figures from the Interior Ministry with 96 percent of votes counted.
Fillon scored 19.9 percent in the first round and far-left contender Jean-Luc Melenchon 19.5 percent.
• The euro vaulted to five-month peaks in choppy Asian trading on Monday after the market's favored candidate won through the first round of the French election, reducing the risk of a Brexit-like shock and sparking a mass unwinding of safe-haven trades.
Investors had feared for the single currency's future if one of the far-left candidates had gotten through to fight Le Pen. The euro jumped in relief, and was last up 1.2 percent at $1.0860 EUR=, having been as far as $1.0940, the highest since early November.
• The safe-haven yen slipped across the board with the euro surging 2.1 percent to 119.46 yen EURJPY= while the U.S. dollar gained 0.8 percent to 109.96 yen JPY=. Likewise, gold fell 0.8 percent to $1,273.30 an ounce XAU=.
• President Donald Trump's promised "big announcement" next week on overhauling the U.S. tax code, a top campaign pledge, will consist of "broad principles and priorities," an administration official said on Saturday.
• Fed’s Kashkari: Next Rate Move Not Important Long-Term, Fiscal Policy Is Of High Importance.
• Oil prices tumbled more than 2 percent on Friday, notching the biggest weekly decline in more than a month on mounting evidence that U.S. production and inventory growth were offsetting OPEC's attempts to reduce the global crude glut.
Brent futures LCOc1 settled at $51.96 a barrel, down $1.03, or 2 percent at the market's close. U.S. crude futures CLc1 ended at $49.62 a barrel, down 2.2 percent, or $1.09.
• North Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, in the latest sign of rising tension as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to call the leaders of China and Japan.
Reference: Market Watch, Reuters
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