European futures trade lowere ahead of the opening today 

European stock futures signaled a negative start before the opening on Monday amid mixed expectations and sentiment. France is the risk event of the day as the first round of French elections reflected the possibility that Sarkozy could lose the election as Hollande takes the lead in the first round of the French vote.

Investors see that the surprising results of the first round a risk on the euro economy and a step back in the fight to contain the dept crisis, and also amid fears that France could loss its credit rating.

Meanwhile, investors await data from the European manufacturing sector that showed contraction last month, all eyes will be directed on the data to measure the progress in the industrial activities in Europe. The Chinese PMI manufacturing showed  contraction below the level  of 50 during April.   

Looking closely at the euro, we can see that the currency dropped over daily basis from the highest reached at the start of the Asian session to currently trade at the levels of 1.3172 compared with the opening levels of 1.3182. The EUR/USD reached the lowest level for the day at 1.3171.

As for the Great British Pound, the currency is trading lower against the dollar at 1.6107 compared with the opening levels of 1.6120 noting that it reaching the highest level for the day at 1.6132 and the lowest levels at 1.6100.

As for gold, the commodity is trading in narrow ranges to currently trade around 1640.88 per ounce compared with the opening levels of 1640.64 per ounce. Crude oil on the other end is back trading around 103.60 little changed from the opening of 103.77 per barrel.

As for futures on European indices, the French CAC 40 is down by %1.10 at 3096.00, as for DAX it is hovering around 6706.00 a little higher by 0.73% and finally FTSE 100 is also down by 0.40% to trade around 5702.50.