Market Snapshot – Global Stocks Higher, Oil Rebounds

Global Stocks Higher on French Polls

Eurozone stock markets are moving higher, with France outperforming as latest opinion polls show Macron extending his lead ahead of Sunday’s first round of the Presidential election, although given the unreliability of recent opinion polls, this remains a four-way race that could still go either way.

For now, though pressure on France has receded and the CAC 40 is up 75%, against a decline in the DAX. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 continues to underperform and is down amid ongoing strength in Sterling. The improvement followed gains on most Asian markets overnight, although Japan’s Nikkei and Topix closed narrowly mixed amid a weaker Yen. U.S. stock futures are also moving higher.

Oil Rebounds but Oversupply Weighs

Crude oil is trading higher and inside yesterday’s range. The price action suggests investor indecision and impending volatility. Despite the rebound from yesterday’s sell-off, investors are still worried about the supply glut.

The Saudi Arabian oil minister said that global oil stocks remain well above the five-year average, and, along with his Kuwaiti counterpart, signaled that the OPEC-led supply reduction would likely be extended into the second half of the year. This helped offset yesterday’s data showing a surge in petroleum inventories.

Dollar Drops on Geopolitical Worries, EUR/USD Rallies

The US dollar is trading lower on Thursday as geopolitical risk weigh. Investors remain concern over the North Korean threat as well as the Syrian tension in the past two weeks. US Dollar index is down 0.21% to trade at 99.50.

The EURUSD pair had a very active morning today as the pair moved from the low 1.0700s towards the 1.0750 region. Though a lot of traders were expecting to see some strong selling in this region, the pair has been able to overcome the selling in this region so far and trades comfortably above 1.0750 as of this writing.