Paris stock market rises as Macron tackles political crisis

As President Emmanuel Macron looked for a solution to France's political turmoil, the Paris stock market rose on Friday.

While South Korea struggles with its own political turmoil, Seoul pulled back, and Chinese indexes completed the week with strong gains as China's economy shows signs of revival.

Ahead of Friday's important US jobs data, which is expected to offer more hints about the rate of interest rate decreases in the largest economy in the world, the dollar strengthened.

Both bitcoin and oil prices dropped back below $100,000.

With "hope that President Emmanuel Macron will serve out his term and that a (French) budget can be passed in the coming weeks," the Paris stock market surged 1.3% in lunchtime trading, surpassing both London and Frankfurt, according to Derren Nathan, head of equities research at Hargreaves Lansdown.

The luxury market also benefited from expectations that Chinese demand would increase. Kering, the company that owns Gucci, rose more than 5%, and it topped the Paris CAC 40.

In an attempt to select a new prime minister, Macron met with both left and right-leaning French politicians on Friday.

In a speech to the country late Thursday, 24 hours after Michel Barnier's administration was overthrown in a historic vote of no confidence, he took on a belligerent tone.

Barnier's 2025 budget plan, which included austerity measures that were deemed unpalatable by a majority in parliament but were nevertheless pushed through without a vote through the use of extraordinary powers, served as the catalyst.

As lawmakers got ready to hold an impeachment vote on Saturday following President Yoon Suk Yeol's dramatic, brief martial law this week, shares in Seoul fell more than 1% and the won dropped to roughly 1,420 to the dollar.

Analysts predicted that the crisis's economic effects would be minimal, but the political upheaval is still continuing strong.

The leader of Yoon's ruling People Power Party warned that he constituted a serious threat to the nation and demanded his resignation over the incident on Friday.

When senior Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, meet next week to debate economic policy, investors became more optimistic about more stimulus, which caused Hong Kong and Shanghai to rally.

This meeting comes after new data suggested that China's nearly two-year growth downturn would soon come to an end.

Following the announcement that US President-elect Donald Trump had appointed cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to lead the country's markets regulator, Bitcoin was trading at about $98,000 after hitting a record high of $103,800 on Thursday.

Later on Thursday, Trump, who claimed credit for the bitcoin milestone in an online article, called former PayPal CEO operating officer David Sacks as White House “AI and Crypto Czar”.
The wealthy tech entrepreneur will take on a newly created role advising the Trump administration on cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.