Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters – On Monday the euro seemed to end a seven-day losing streak against US dollars. The single currency rallied as Marine Le Pen, the far right opponent in the election for France’s presidential elections beat Emmanuel Macron.

Concerns about the direction of Europe’s second largest economy, the Eurozone’s second, have been a concern for investors. This has also weighed on the currency.

At the moment, however, the dollar has been driven higher by the rising yields in the United States and hopes that the Federal Reserve will swiftly act to reduce inflation.

Macron will take on Le Pen during what promises to prove to be an intensely fought French presidential runoff.

The euro saw some improvement despite Macron’s win in the first round. In Asian trading hours, it was up by three quarters to $1.0955. Last week, it was up 0.4% to $1.09150.

Analysts of currency said that the competition remained at a knife edge with negative implications to the euro.

Analysts from MUFG wrote in a note, “The narrower-than-expected victory for President Macron will keep alive concerns that Le Pen could become president.”

The euro will continue to be a small weight in the weeks ahead despite the close results of the first round and opinion polls that point towards the result in the second round.

The, which measures the greenback’s performance against six peer baskets, was broadly flat during the day and just short of the 100 mark last week. This is the first such time in almost two years.

With the US dollar gaining ground, Japanese yen is under some of the greatest selling pressure. Investors have little incentive to sell their bets against it, as the Bank of Japan has yields that are close to zero.

At 125.435 dollars per dollar, the yen saw a 7-year low against the dollar. The yen was at 125.19 for the last quarter of a percentage.

National Australia Bank’s Head of Foreign Exchange Ray Attrill stated that “there’s nothing to fear people out of dollar/yen situations.” “So, onwards and upwards dollar/yen.”

Before its losses were reduced, the dollar rose as high as 0.5% against the Australian and New Zealand Dollars.

The sterling was flat against $1.30290.

After the temporary capital controls measures were relaxed by the central bank, the Russian ruble fell in jittery trading Monday. This was a reverse of some previous week’s gains.