Reuters was ahead with the main breaks on the day of the French presidential election first round voting, from early turnout numbers to the initial indications of exit poll results. An unmatched comment from a key supporter of Republican challenger François Fillon that the early indications were “not good” made it clear that the outcome was a runoff between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron.
Markets took the election result as indicating a second round win for centrist candidate Macron, sending the euro up 1.2 percent on the day and halving the gap between French and German two-year bond yields.