Markets on Edge as Macron Trails Le Pen in Polls

What is it at stake then for for investors? What investors are trying to do now is like they're trying to price 50 Shades of different market stress. There's a lot of possibilities, a lot of uncertainty, and none of the options are none of the scenarios are particularly good. So you get different types of investors, those who need to be invested in France. So these people are trying to cherry pick through their way through the dip, trying to find the the safest possible stocks. Other international investors are just getting out of France and it's, it's a very, very difficult, it's a very difficult moment for stock investors. And you talk about how investors are adjusting to this new political uncertainty in France. Give us a little bit more detail. You have seen those outflows then in terms of international foreign investors in the French equity space. What else have you been seeing, Julian? So basically 1 clear trade is to cut French banks. So a lot of even French investors are cutting because you have a direct linked with French sovereign debts. So it's that's an easy trade to do. Basically, if you want to cut out risk, you've got highway operators, there's a risk of nationalization. The far right has also been talking about privatizing the the French equivalent of the BBC. So that means that for French medias, they would have to compete on a smaller pool of, of revenues of, you know, commercial revenues. There. There are a lot of different on, on utilities there there's been a lot of very distinct ways of, of cutting risk on France. There's, there's also no one has been buying the dip in the French stock market basically is broadly flat on the year when the, the DAX, for instance, is up 8%. And so then you have the option to cherry pick your way and, and, you know, find really stocks that are, you know, the, the most resilient. And So what people are doing, for instance, is like targeting like French industrials that have a very large footprint outside of France, where like French revenues is only 5 or 10%, you know, companies that are active in Asia, in the US and in different ways. So there's, there are different ways of, of adjusting to the risk, but there's no, there's no really good outcome to be expected. You know when, when we will be on July 8th, on the Monday following the, the elections there. There's no, there's not, there's not a great scenario out there. Yeah, Julian. Then in, in terms of, so we have the 1st rounds, 2 rounds, we have the first round this weekend, then the final on July, on July the 7th. Talk to us about what is expected then between now and that second round of voting in France. There was a note by strategist that although that I found really good, basically they were saying get out, stay out, don't get in. There's going to be a lot of uncertainty between now and the end. There's a lot of volatility expected and again, there's no really positive scenario, you know, whereby you would like invest on, you know, the, the, the French stock market really. So I think there's going to be a lot of stress, a lot of volatility, a lot of uncertainty. I think it's a market that's really complicated. Some people who need to be invested in in French equities, for instance, fund managers who have, you know, funds exposed to France specifically, they need to find their way. But if you don't need to be in this market, a lot of, you know, strategists or workers are saying, you know, like it's you don't want to be in this market for the next two weeks.