1. Get ready to be seduced by $$$$
With the election only six Saturdays away, the political pundits say our next Prime Minister will have won the economic argument for our votes.

And with unemployment heading towards historical lows and household savings levels at historical highs, you’d think Prime Minister Morrison would be favourite to win on May 21. But the polls put Labor ahead. Experts on Aussie voters say the economy is delivering high inflation and falling real wages, which Labor is promising to change, so get ready for promises of more money in your pocket from both sides.

2. Would a positive or negative market affect voters?
With the election campaign off and running, an interesting question is: would a positive or negative stock market affect voters? A huge sell-off of the stock market over the next six weeks could advantage the Government on the basis that fear could make voters avoid a change. But on day one, the local share market is tipped to be up 27 points at the opening, following a positive close for the Dow Jones index over our weekend. This week, US inflation could rock the stock market, while locally our latest unemployment numbers will become big political news. The jobless rate is expected to fall to 3.9% — the best reading since 1978.

3. Finfluencers face five years jail
The finance watchdog is cracking down on financial influencers and it has led to claims that useful money education is being lost from the web.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) last month stepped up warnings to “finfluencers” — people who use social media to influence investors to buy stocks that they benefit from. Many of these influencers encourage their followers to buy stocks that they are paid to promote and ASIC wants this to stop. Education and advertising is permitted but talking up stocks that brings the finfluencer payments could see the influencer face five years jail!

4. New French President to be decided within a fortnight
President Emmanuel Macron is set to face his nationalist rival Marine Le Pen in the final round of the French election in a re-run of their 2017 contest. 

“Macron got around 28% of the vote compared with about 24% for Le Pen, according to pollsters’ projections based on partial results from Sunday’s initial ballot. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was third with around 20%. The top two candidates will go forward to a runoff on April 24 to decide who will lead Europe’s second-biggest economy,” Bloomberg reports.

5. ASX to start week on positive note
ASX futures up 27 points or 0.4% to 7480, with the AUD -0.3% to 74.58 US cents. On Wall St: Dow +0.4% S&P 500 -0.3% Nasdaq -1.3%. Bitcoin (BTC) on Coinmarketcap: $57,340.84. 2-year yield: US +0.05% (2.51%) Australia +0.02% (2.11%). 10-year yield: US +0.04% (2.70%) Australia +0.05% (2.96%).