With just three days to go before the final round of French elections, a sense of calm pervades markets as Emmanuel Macron looks set to prevail over rival Marine Le Pen, Bloomberg News reported. Risk gauges show investors are mostly ruling out the possibility of a presidential win by anti-euro candidate Le Pen after they pared hedging following her centrist opponent’s thumping victory in the preliminary ballot. Opinion polls consistently indicate a 20 percentage point advantage for Macron, and a snap survey by polling firm Elabe adjudged him the winner in a television debate on Wednesday.

French carmaker PSA Group said its first-quarter revenue rose 4.9 percent, as the first results of a new product offensive helped to overcome negative currency effects, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Revenue advanced to 13.63 billion euros (£11.62 billion) from 13 billion a year earlier, the maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars said on Wednesday. At its core automotive division, revenue rose a more modest 2.5 percent to 9.02 billion euros.

Private-equity backed French clothing retailer Vivarte, in talks to restructure more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of debt, has sealed a deal with its lenders, chairman and chief executive Patrick Puy told French newspaper Les Echos, Reuters reported. Vivarte, which has put up several of its brands for sale under the restructuring, could announce the sale of its Pataugas shoe brand to a private investor within two weeks, he added. The debt restructuring plan, which was agreed by all of the retailer's 172 creditors, calls for the conversion of 846 million euros of debt into equity.

Peugeot struck a more than €2 billion ($2.1 billion) deal to buy General Motors Co.’s unprofitable European operations, a daring move by a French auto maker that is still early in its own financial recovery, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal, announced Monday, ratchets up Peugeot’s share of the growing European car market to 16%, passing French rival Renault SA for No. 2 in the region behind Volkswagen AG in terms of volume.

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen envisions the protective hand of the state guiding a reordered economy that punishes companies that fail to serve the interests of the nation and rewards those that put France first, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. In a speech on Wednesday, Le Pen laid out the nationalist policies based on "economic patriotism" that would be put enacted if she wins the two-round presidential election.

Struggling French nuclear reactor maker Areva on Wednesday reported a €665m net loss for 2016, which was an improvement on the previous year but still highlighted the scale of the problems facing the group, the Financial Times reported. The state-controlled company is undergoing a far reaching restructuring in a government-backed deal after losses brought it to the brink of collapse. The company recorded a net loss of €2bn for 2015 and €4.8bn for 2014.

Bond markets may have been roiled by the prospect of Marine Le Pen as president of the eurozone’s second largest economy but the country’s households and businesses are taking it in their stride, the Financial Times reported. They’ve started the year in bouyant mood, reaping the benefits of a broader uptick in job creation and consumer spending seen across the eurozone in recent months.

This spring, France will vote in a presidential election that has raised questions over the country’s continued use of the euro, The Wall Street Journal reported. National Front candidate Marine Le Pen has said she would pull her country, one of the European Union’s founding nations, out of the common currency. That has sent yields on French bonds climbing to their highest level against German debt since 2012. It has also hit the bonds of weaker European economies as questions resurface over the euro project. But for now, the currency itself appears relatively unmoved by the threat.

If Marine Le Pen has her way, the French will soon pay for their baguettes with francs, not euros, The New Zealand Herald reported on an Associated Press story. The presidential candidate from the anti-EU, anti-immigration National Front party is all about national sovereignty and independence. She wants France to take control of its money, subject to a referendum that would lead France out of the European Union and its shared currency. But how would France pull off a euro exit, or "Frexit"? No country has left the euro since its creation in 1999.

The rise of populist parties in France and Italy is awakening an old fear in Europe: that public debt may be forcibly switched back into former national currencies if countries exit the monetary union, Bloomberg News reported. The concern is reminiscent of the depths of the euro region debt crisis, when doubts about Greece’s ability to meet its obligations sent investors scrambling to offload exposure -- and dust off their legal textbooks.