The euro is finally picking up.
The currency is up 0.4% at 1.0635 against the dollar as of 7:42 a.m. ET following a ten-day losing streak.
Notably, a Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) team led by Hans W. Redeker wrote in a note to clients that the euro's moves are still "largely driven" by the greenback.
"However, we think EUR should remain strong on the crosses, particularly EURJPY," they wrote. "Eurozone political events are now treated as binary risks for the EUR. We believe the main one to focus on is the French election."
Speaking of, over the weekend ex-President Nicholas Sarkozy lost his bid for re-election after coming behind François Fillon and Alain Juppe in a contest for the center-right presidential candidates. Fillon, a social conservative and an admirer of Margaret Thatcher who gained the endorsement from Sarkozy, will be squaring off with Juppe next weekend in a runoff campaign.
Meanwhile in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced her candidacy for a fourth term in the September 2017 elections, as most had been expecting.
As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 7:55 a.m. ET:
- The US dollar indexis down by 0.3% at 100.93 ahead of a quite day for data. "The USD has rallied sharply and is technically starting to look a little overbought, with the daily RSI of the broad USD index reaching levels last seen in early January of this year," according to Redeker's team. "However, while that period marked the beginning of a multi-month USD pullback, this time we think any retracements will be shallow and short-lived. We stick with our long USD positions."
- The Japanese yenis higher by 0.2% at 110.65 per dollar. Earlier, Japan reported a second consecutive trade surplus in October, while exports fell by 10.3% year-over-year for the same month, following a 6.9% drop in September. Exports have been falling in year-over-year terms for over a year now.
- The Russian ruble is up by 0.8% at 64.1651 per dollar, while Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is higher by 2.2% at $47.90 per barrel.
- The British pound is stronger by 0.5% at 1.2399 against the dollar.
- The Australian dollar is up 0.5% at .7369 per dollar.