3 numbers to watch: EUR levels, France's CAC 40, Fed's Lacker

Voters in Greece and France turned their backs on austerity and the 2012 version of the EU Sunday. This confirms our thesis that European politics is spinning out of control. The division between voters and the 2012 version of the EU is bigger than ever, as I wrote in my analysis last night, France and Greece deliver major protest votes.   

Overnight, the market made clear what it thought of the election results. Versus the USD, the EUR opened at 1.3030, some 30 points below Friday’s NY close, but was quickly under more pressure and fell through the key 1.30 mark shortly thereafter, then traded to a 4-1/2 month low just above 1.2950, as my collegue Andrew Robinson writes in his Asian market coverage.  Andy also notes the IMF has commented that if a new Greek government does not stick to agreed measures, aid payments could be suspended, possibly as early as June.

EURUSD levels will be the key number to watch for the rest of this trading day. Our Saxo Bank traders publish updates from the  trading floor at Saxo Bank all day, which you can follow on our forex page. 

In France, the number to watch today will be CAC40 performance. We have seen in 2012 so far that the Spanish, Portugese and Greek stock market have underformed by more than 30 percent. Today is the CAC40's turn, with the index down pre-market. Also, my colleague Thomas Berggren has noticed banks will likely underperform.

Finally, the Fed's Lacker speaks later today, when he will no doubt talk about the labour market.

Visit the financial calendar for details of today's events and live updates of market data.