CAC 40 opens higher this morning

As the CAC 40 opens higher this morning, the growing belief around the markets; is that the French left and middle will be able to block the National Assembly in the second round of the election this coming Sunday. That assumes that Le Pen will not gain an outright majority, but what if she does? That is the elephant in the room folks. There is no bias here on the potential outcome, but it might be a very close run thing and that prospect is that has dented the CAC over the past couple of weeks and sent it back below 7,500 from record levels above 8,250. To this analyst the outcome on Sunday is very finely balanced and of course, if Le Pen fails to be gain an overall majority there will surely be a huge sigh of relief on Monday when the CAC 40 reopens. Crazy as it may seem, the markets are hoping a hung French parliament is the best of a more negative outcome, but it would be nonetheless far from positive in real terms. In the very short term, the CAC is getting a boost from the record closes on Wall Street, but with 3 trading days to go before the weekend, there is room for many more swings and roundabouts. The index closed yesterday at  7,538. It is just now trading at 7,580