French No Confidence Vote Looms, Dollar Rises – Europe Market Wrap

As the situation surrounding the French government grew more intense, the dollar continued to rise while US stock futures indicated a slight retreat from Friday’s record S&P 500 closing.

Equities contracts fell by roughly 0.2%, indicating a slowdown in the surge that gave the S&P 500’s best month of the year.

While the euro plummeted after France’s far-right party threatened to destabilise the government over a budget dispute. French bonds fell, as did the Paris-based CAC 40 stock index. PM Barnier later made a concession to the far right to scrap plans to reduce medication reimbursements, which led to the Euro and CAC 40 rising.

While the dollar has increased by around 2% since the November 5 election, December is generally a month that punishes the greenback.

The dollar has lost ground in eight of the last ten Decembers, frequently as a result of year-end portfolio rebalancing flows and the so-called Santa Rally, which drives traders to sell dollars in favour of riskier assets such as stocks.

US tightens China curbs on AI memory and semiconductor tools.

ECB’s Kazaks: ECB likely to discuss bigger December cut but uncertainty is high.