Markets Overview: (Source: Bloomberg, FT, Reuters, DJ Newswires)

UK 100 Index called to open +10pts at 7305, extending Friday’s bullish break from a 3-week narrowing pattern to get above 7300, but off its overnight highs. While the breakout increases the possibility of revisiting 7448 all-time highs, falling highs resistance at 7370 could be a big hurdle. Bulls need to see overnight highs of 7335 exceeded; Bears are waiting to see whether 7300 holds up. Watch levels: Bullish 7335, Bearish 7300.

A positive opening call comes as markets breathe a sigh of relief and welcome a Macron victory in France, while oil holds its bounce, however, optimism is tempered somewhat by the outcome having been largely expected and China trade data spoiling the party overnight, adding to last week’s disappointing PMIs, putting metals prices back under pressure again.

Japan’s Nikkei has outperformed, playing catch up from public holidays, driven by a Yen sell-off (safe haven shunned in the wake of Macron's win) and Oil’s bounce on OPEC extension hopes helping Energy. The latter is also assisting Australia's ASX along with its Media contingent getting a boost from potential changes to ownership rules and fresh M&A hopes.

US indices finished last week on the front foot heading into the weekend’s French election as investors traded the risk-on atmosphere that the expected Macron victory provided and reacted to a strong Non-Farm Payrolls print. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched fresh record highs as investors reacted to the mixed US jobs report, while the rebound in crude oil prices helped the energy sector to outperform on the former. The Dow Jones underperformed peers, however also closed higher with DuPont leading risers.

The Crude Oil price recovery that began on Friday has continued into the opening trading session of this week, although both Brent and US benchmarks have failed to overcome key support turned resistance levels as $50 and $47 respectively. Investors will once again be on the lookout for any further commentary from OPEC that an extension of its 6-month production cut is in the offing following comments of that nature from de facto leader Saudi Arabia last week.

Gold has been largely unaffected by the result of the French election, as the largely priced in result sees the price of the safe haven asset remain in a tight $1225-1235 trading range. Despite opening to test support at $1225 in Asia, the precious metal quickly rallied to test the upper limit shortly before 1am. With that rally since cooling, $1231 falling highs resistance acts as the next key hurdle. Note, another test and breakdown from $1225 support may open the door for a bearish flag pattern to $1190.

In focus today will be relief at Emmanuel Macron’s French Presidential victory, in the context of Eurozone and financial market stability. The independent centrist’s convincing second-round win over right-wing Marine Le Pen (65% vs 35%) may be a welcome rejection of populist politics, however, the record number of abstentions/blank/spoiled votes, record low turnout and disdain for traditional parties is a sobering reminder of voter fatigue and frustration at the current political offering.

Elsewhere, a light macro data offering today is comprised of UK Halifax House Price Data (8:30am), with growth seen cooling in the 3 months to April but remaining flat annually, before the latest Eurozone Sentix Consumer Confidence reading (9:30am) improves. This afternoon, US data is limited to April Labour Market Conditions change (3pm), with investors looking for a strong bounce back from March’s softest reading since September.

Speaker-wise, all we have scheduled today is a Fed double act as non-voters Bullard (1:35pm) and Mester (1:45pm) speak in Florida and Chicago respectively, with speeches entitled "Shifting Sands of Low Interest Rates" and “From Main Street to Wall Street: Economic Growth, Monetary Policy, and the Federal Reserve”, both followed by Q&A sessions.

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UK Company Headlines: (Source: Reuters/DJ Newswires)

• Australia shares rebound on miners, energy stocks
• Centrica says on track to deliver against 2017 targets
• Centrica Q1 energy supply profitability impacted by warmer weather, weaker prices
• Premier Foods says renews partnership with Mondelez International
• Shell, PetroChina joint unit to study gas expansion in Australia
• Gold firm on euro strength after Macron wins French elections
• Oil prices rise on expectation of output cut extension
• Copper drops as China data looms, inventories rise