The euro is set to reach a four-week high when markets open as exit polls in the French presidential election indicate a victory for centrist Macron. The single currency is expected to jump to $1.09 after having closed at $1.0723, according to Reuters data. This comes after exit polls showed the independent candidate Emmanuel Macron gathered most of the votes in the first round of the French election. The same polls indicated that far-right candidate Marine Le Pen placed second in the first vote

The euro spiked against the dollar on Sunday as early results from the French election showed Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron advancing to a presidential runoff. Reuters data showed the common currency jumped to $1.084 against the greenback before the market open from a Friday close of around $1.072. Far-right candidate Le Pen and centrist Macron were largely expected to pull ahead in the first round of the French contest. “I think that’s the important thing,” said Art Hogan, chief market stra

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face one another in the final round of the French presidential election on May 7, according to exit polls released at 8:00 p.m. local time. Global markets breathed a sigh of relief to see establishment candidate Macron receive the largest portion of votes in the first round. Centrist Emmanuel Macron of the independent En Marche party secured the lion’s share of votes in Sunday’s preliminary election at 24 percent, with the far-right’s Marine Le Pen of Franc

Nearly two-thirds of Americans give President Donald Trump poor or middling marks for his first 100 days in office, including a plurality who say he’s off to a “poor start,” according to results from a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Forty-five percent of respondents in the survey believe Trump is off to a poor start, with an additional 19 percent who say it’s been “only a fair start.” That’s compared with a combined 35 percent who think the president’s first three months in office

Amid rising tensions between the United States and North Korea, a U.S. citizen has reportedly been detained by the government of President Kim Jong-Il. Early Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that North Korea arrested a U.S. citizen in Pyongyang on Friday, citing two unnamed sources. The detention was confirmed to CNN and The Associated Press by an official at the Swedish Embassy, which represents American interests in North Korea. The news comes as North Korea continues to rattle its sab

There are a lot of benefits to reading. Science shows that the habit can make you smarter, more emotionally intelligent and even increase your odds of getting rich. If that didn’t convince you to swap Netflix for a paperback, do it because it’s World Book Day. For inspiration, CNBC rounded up Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and five other self-made billionaires’ favorites, from business books to novels. Happy reading!

Studded with performances from Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow and Carly Simon, a premiere at last week’s Tribeca Film Festival also featured a Silicon Valley celebrity: Apple. Apple Music has the exclusive rights to “Clive Davis: The Soundtrack Of Our Lives,” which airs in New York City this week at the annual artistic confab. “Apple is a global innovator that has revolutionized the distribution of music,” Davis said in a statement. The documentary film profiles Davis, who helped launch the care

Mr. Camp and Mr. Kalanick picked that name to emphasize the convenience of calling a car on demand from an app. Mr. Kalanick, who was single, pulled out a laptop to work on a spreadsheet, crunching Uber’s numbers while friends watched the dancers onstage. Over the next hour, Mr. Kalanick and Mr. Michael repeatedly laughed at Mr. Zimmer’s audacious request. Apple engineers outside of Cupertino caught on to Uber’s methods, prompting Mr. Cook to call Mr. Kalanick to his office. Mr. Kalanick was sha

A plurality believe he’s off to a “poor start,” the data showed. However, a separate poll by the Washington Post and ABC News show Trump’s base is holding firm, with a large number of those surveyed saying the economy is getting better. The Post/ABC data showed Trump with a 42 percent approval rating, largely in line with NBC/WSJ’s findings and the lowest for any president in at least 50 years, the report showed. In the NBC/WSJ poll, Trump scored comparatively high marks on the economy, with 44

Our live blog is tracking reactions as polls show France’s Macron wins 24 percent of vote and Le Pen wins 22 percent in the first round. We’ll bring you the latest analysis below.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face one another in the final round of the French presidential election on May 7, according to exit polls released at 8:00 p.m. local time. Centrist Emmanuel Macron of the independent En Marche party secured the lion’s share of votes in Sunday’s preliminary election at 24 percent, with the far-right’s Marine Le Pen of France’s National Front party trailing narrowly behind at 22 percent, according to Harris poll estimates. Head to the CNBC International webs

Australia’s move to scrap the 457 visa program that allowed skilled migrants to work in the country for up to four years was the right move for the trade-dependent economy, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said in an interview with CNBC at the weekend in which he discussed economic challenge ahead of the next federal budget. Questioned on whether scrapping the visa program would send out the wrong message to trade partners, Cormann said “we are an open trading economy” that needs skilled workers

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a royal decree at the weekend that restored financial allowances for civil servants and military personnel that had been cut under austerity measures. “The royal order returns all allowances, financial benefits, and bonuses to civil servants and military staff,” said the decree, broadcast on state-run Ekhbariya TV. The measures were the first pay cuts for government employees, who make up about two-thirds of working Saudis. Oil prices sank to a low of around $28

North Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, as two Japanese navy ships joined a U.S. carrier group for exercises in the western Pacific. The United States has not specified where the carrier strike group is as it approaches the area. North Korea remained defiant. Japan’s show of naval force reflects growing concern that North Korea could strike it with nuclear or chemical warheads. Last Thursday, Trump praised Chinese efforts to rein

Market risk over the elections in France will come to the fore in a widely expected second round of voting as opinion polls to date suggest a centrist candidate will go against far-right National Front chief Marine Le Pen and likely win. “The real issue in France is the second election,” Weber said, referring to an expected May 7 runoff between the top two vote-winners. He said that should see Emmanuel Macron, 39, a centrist ex-banker, or “one of the other” in a likely reference to conservative

“Choppy” is how former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson would describe China’s tightening sanctions. Speaking at the Harvard China Forum on Saturday, Paulson said “when you see this tyrant in North Korea parading weapons” and for China to be upset when South Korea brings in a missile defense system, it just “doesn’t make sense.” And it may come down to a difference in objectives when it comes to the Korean Peninsula according to Paulson. I don’t know who’s driving his Chinese policy and I don’t g

France goes to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a bitterly-fought presidential election, crucial to the future of Europe and a closely-watched test of voters’ anger with the political establishment. “It wouldn’t be the classic left vs right divide but two views of the world clashing,” said Ifop pollsters’ Jerome Fourquet. “Macron bills himself as the (progressive) versus conservatives, Le Pen as the patriot versus the globalists.” While Macron wants to further beef up the euro zone, Le

When Don Halpern appeared on a “Shark Tank” episode that aired Friday to pitch his slash-proof, locking bag, investor Robert Herjavec was not impressed. At least not Initially. Herjavec, a self-made multi-millionaire cybersecurity entrepreneur, was skeptical that people would use the LocTote Industrial Bag. It’s a heavy duty drawstring backpack made out of RFID-blocking material that protects your credit, debit and ATM cards, preventing hackers from being able to rip your financial data.

Last November, California voted “yes” to legalizing recreational marijuana, making this week’s annual celebration of marijuana in San Francisco the first officially sanctioned event by the city. A bevvy of sponsors were on hand to demonstrate the weed economy’s growing clout, including HEMP20, Green Door SF and High Times Magazine (naturally). San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is usually the site of marijuana-inspired pandemonium on 4/20, but this year’s celebration was even more coordinated than

For a prominent brand with a long history, public relations crises are all but inevitable. That said, not all PR flaps are created equal — something to which United Airlines and Pepsi can surely attest after a rough week in the news. Earlier this month, Pepsi created a stir with a spot featuring Kendall Jenner that many observers felt trivialized protest movements everywhere, which prompted the company to pull the ad. Alex Slater, managing director of the Clyde Group public affairs firm, suggest