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GLOBAL MARKETS-Equity markets, euro rally after French election

Published 2017-04-24, 01:59 p/m
Updated 2017-04-24, 02:00 p/m
© Reuters.  GLOBAL MARKETS-Equity markets, euro rally after French election

© Reuters. GLOBAL MARKETS-Equity markets, euro rally after French election

* Macron wins first round in French vote, ahead in polls

* Stocks on Wall Street rally 1 percent

* Safe-haven yen, Treasuries and gold fall

* Oil selloff continues (Adds close of European markets)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - Global equity markets rallied on Monday to send a gauge of world stock indexes to a record high, while the euro briefly jumped to a five-month peak against the U.S. dollar as the first round of an election in France went to the market's preferred candidate.

Centrist Emmanuel Macron took a big step towards the French presidency on Sunday by winning the first round of voting and qualifying for a May 7 runoff alongside far-right leader Marine Le Pen. victory for the pro-European Union centrist Macron sent MSCI's gauge of stock indexes across the globe .MIWD00000PUS to a record high of 453.38.

The blue chip euro zone STOXX 50 index .STOXX50E surged 4 percent, its best day in nearly two years, while France's CAC40 .FCHI jumped 4.1 percent, its biggest daily percentage gain in almost five years.

Investors were concerned a victory for Le Pen could put France on the path taken by Britain to leave the European Union.

"The biggest thing was you got confirmation that polling can actually be somewhat accurate, so you can actually make a prediction on probabilities of events and you can allocate assets and you don't get this big surprise," said Thomas Hainlin, global investment strategist at Ascent Private Capital Management in Minneapolis.

"So you just get this big relief rally."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 220.7 points, or 1.07 percent, to 20,768.46, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 24.65 points, or 1.05 percent, to 2,373.34 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 69.73 points, or 1.18 percent, to 5,980.25.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 2.20 percent, its best day in 10 months, and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 1.49 percent.

The euro pared earlier gains, but was still up more than 1 percent against the dollar EUR= and nearly 2 percent higher against the yen EURJPY= .

There was also an unwinding of safe-haven trades.

Shorter-term German bonds DE2YT=TWEB saw their biggest sell-off since the end of 2015 as investors piled back into French FR10YT=TWEB as well as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek debt. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 10/32 in price to yield 2.2695 percent, from 2.236 percent late on Friday.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.65 percent versus the greenback to 109.79 per dollar. Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, the VIX volatility index .VIX , plunged the most since November.

Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.7 percent to $1,275.56 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 fell 0.88 percent to $1,277.70 an ounce.

Meanwhile, investors are gearing up for the busiest week for corporate results in at least a decade on Wall Street, with more than 190 S&P 500 companies, including heavyweights Alphabet GOOGL.O and Microsoft MSFT.O , due to report.

Asia also saw a risk rally. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.61 percent higher, while Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 1.37 percent.

Oil prices continued to decline after last week's selloff, on lack of confirmation that OPEC will extend output cuts till the end of 2017 and as Russia indicated it can lift output if the deal on curbs lapses. crude CLcv1 fell 0.75 percent to $49.25 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $51.64, down 0.62 percent on the day.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Global assets in 2017

http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC Global currencies vs. dollar

http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Global bonds dashboard

http://tmsnrt.rs/2fPTds0 Emerging markets in 2017

http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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