World stocks hit record highs on Tuesday, with investors' relief at centrist Emmanuel Macron's victory in the first round of the French presidential election supported by speculation about U.S. tax reform.
Shares and the dollar fell on Tuesday as a snap general election call in Britain added to a lengthening list of uncertainties for investors already on edge over tensions simmering from North Korea to France.
European shares edged lower on Tuesday, after falls on Asian bourses, and low-risk government debt yields fell as political risks from a meeting between the U.S. and Chinese leaders to the French presidential election kept investors on edge.
The dollar rose on Wednesday after U.S. private-sector jobs numbers massively beat forecasts to rise already sky-high expectations that U.S. interest rates will go up next week.
Global stocks hit record highs on Wednesday, topping 2016's gains just two months into 2017, while the dollar rose before Federal Reserve minutes that will be scoured for clues about the next U.S. interest rate rise.
European stocks rose on Monday, with gains in telecoms and banks offsetting a big fall in Unilever, while the dollar dipped as uncertainty over politics and the timing of a U.S. interest rate rise kept investors nervous.
Stocks rose and yields fell on some of the euro zone's battered low-rated bonds on Thursday as investors put aside the political risks that have dominated markets this week.
Political uncertainty ahead of European elections prompted nervous investors to sell the euro and kept French government debt under pressure on Wednesday while the price of safe-haven gold hit three-month highs.
Investors sold sterling and stocks in Europe and Asia on Monday, seeking shelter in gold and the Japanese yen as uncertainty over Britain's departure from the European Union and the policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump curbed appetite for risk.
