VIDEO: Foreign markets shift as world reacts to Francois Hollande's victory in French election

François Hollande, the French Socialist who challenged incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy, won election as France's president over the weekend.

Already, the reverberations are being felt in advance of what many businesspeople expect will be Hollande's rollback of the platform of austerity spending and higher taxes advanced by Sarkozy and many other European leaders. The euro fell Monday morning and stock markets across Asia and Europe were generally down as traders reacted to Hollande's victory, election results in Greece as well as a weak U.S. labor report late last week.

Hollande is the first challenger to beat a French incumbent since 1981. While he's expected to take a different approach than Sarkozy in terms of austerity and tax hikes, both Hollande and Sarkozy have pledged to produce a balanced budget within five years, The New York Times reported.

No Honeymoon from EU Debt for Francois Hollande
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