1. Euro hits 3-week high

The euro rose to its highest level in 3 weeks against the USD on Thursday, after a new opinion poll indicated that centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron will win the French presidential election.

The Harris Interactive opinion poll showed that 25% of voters intended to vote for Macron in the run-up to Sunday’s first round of voting, ahead of Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front party on 22%.

Republican candidate Francois Fillon was at 19% and left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was also at 19%. The poll also showed Macron comfortably beating Le Pen in the second round of voting two weeks later at 66% to 34%.

Investors are scared over the prospect of a second round run-off between euro skeptics Melenchon and Le Pen, who both want to put the country’s European Union membership to a vote.

2. Dollar slides to 3-week low

The dollar index was down around 0.4% at 99.32 in New York morning trade, its deepest trough since March 28.

Geopolitical concerns remained to the forefront after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that Washington was looking at ways to pressure North Korea over its nuclear program.

North Korean state media warned the U.S. of a "super-mighty preemptive strike", saying don't "mess with us" as tensions between the two countries continued to rise.

Markets on Thursday will be watching a few economic reports, such as initial jobless claims at 12:30 GMT and the Philadelphia Fed survey, also at 12:30 GMT.

A recent batch of disappointing data on employment, consumer spending and inflation prompted market players to push back their expectations for two more hikes this year.

3. Markets review, IMF meeting

U.S. stock market futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Thursday morning, as investors looked ahead to more corporate earnings while monitoring continued geopolitical tension concerning North Korea.

The blue-chip Dow futures gained 42 points, or around 0.2%, the S&P 500 futures added 7 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures rose 18 points.

Earnings are expected from Verizon, Travelers, Blackstone, Bank of New York Mellon, Imax, KeyCorp and Danaher before the bell. After the bell, Visa and Mattel report.

In Europe, stocks struggled for direction in mid-morning trade, with Germany's DAX up around 0.2%, while London's FTSE 100 slumped 0.2%. Earlier, in Asia, markets ended mixed in lackluster trade, with the Shanghai Composite in China closing up less than 0.1%, while Japan's Nikkei ended little changed.

World finance leaders are gathering on U.S. President Donald Trump's home turf on Thursday to try to move his policies away from protectionism and show broad support for open trade and global integration.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings bring the two multilateral institutions' 189 members face-to-face with Trump's "America First" agenda for the first time, just two blocks from the White House.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are also scheduled to speak at the event throughout the day.

4. Oil recovers on OPEC comments

Oil prices were higher on Thursday, bouncing back from its worst day in six weeks after leading Gulf oil producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait gave the clearest signal yet that OPEC plans to extend into the second half of the year a deal with non-OPEC producers to curb oil supplies.

Consensus is growing among oil producers that their supply restraint agreement should be extended after its initial six-month term, but there is as yet no agreement, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Thursday. Kuwait's oil minister Essam al-Marzouq, at the same event, said he expected to see an extension of the agreement.

In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day between January and June. A final decision on whether or not to extend the deal beyond June will be taken by the oil cartel on May 25.

Oil futures sank almost 4% on Wednesday after weekly supply data showed U.S. gasoline supplies increased for the first time since February, while crude output kept rising.