Wall Street to open flat after Macron wins French election

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

REUTERS - U.S. stocks were on track to open little changed on Monday as investors looked for fresh catalysts following centrist Emmanuel Macron's widely expected victory in the French presidential election.

Currency markets were in sharp focus, with the euro hitting a six-month high against the dollar after Macron comfortably defeated far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen who had threatened to take France out of the European Union.

"The results came in as expected and the market had already factored that in," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

"The market is trading in a careful and deliberate way looking for the next driving force, which I expect will cause a strong move in either way."

Dow e-minis were down 31 points, or 0.15 percent at 8:32 a.m. ET (1232 GMT), with 25,462 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were down 3 points, or 0.13 percent, with 186,315 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 5 points, or 0.09 percent, on volume of 28,884 contracts.

The S&P 500 closed at a record level on Friday as energy stocks rose along with oil prices.

However, oil fell on Monday, hovering near a six-month low as the market weighed news from OPEC and other producers about prolonging output cuts against data showing the recovery in U.S. drilling had extended for a year. [O/R]

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester said the central bank's goals were largely met and interest rate hikes were on track.

However, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said the rise in demand for safe assets remains strong and there was no need to rush rate hikes.

Shares of Kate Spade rose 8.7 percent to $18.42 in light premarket trading after bigger rival Coach Inc said it would buy the company for $2.4 billion.

Straight Path surged more than 27 percent to $205.30 after an unnamed telecommunications company raised its offer to buy the wireless spectrum holder for about $3.1 billion, trumping a bid by AT&T. Sources told Reuters that the bidder was Verizon.

IBM was on track to extend losses after hitting a six-month low following Warren Buffett's stake sale in the technology company.

(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)