FTSE 100

Having held on to hope that the reflationary impulse would sustain the adverse series of events and geopolitical shocks over the past two weeks, RBC's head of cross-asset strategy Charlie McElligott is ready to throw in the towel, driven by what we have been pounding the table on for the past three months, namely the fading inflationary impulse out of China, manifesting itself most vividly in the recent crash in various commodities, and iron ore in particular, which has tumbled 30% from recent highs.

European stocks slide as traders returned from a 4-day Easter holidays, Asian equities likewise drop pressured by the ongoing rout in iron ore, while U.S. stock-index futures point to a lower open. British markets were roiled after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said she would seek an early election on June 8, in a move aimed at strengthening her hand going into Brexit talks; the FTSE 100 dropped 1.3%, on the news, hitting the lowest since Feb. 24 while 10Y Gilts dropped below 1% for the first time since October.

Following Sunday night's resumption of trade after a three-day weekend, which saw sharp moves lower in US yields, the dollar and the USDJPY after Friday's disappointing CPI and retail sales data and the weekend's North Korea jitters, the mood has stabilized in light trading with Asian stocks advancing, Europe mostly closed for Easter Monday and S&P futures fractionally lower at 2,325 in early New York trading.

S&P futures extended their Wednesday decline, dropping in the overnight session with banking shares in focus ahead of results from JPMorgan and Citigroup. European stocks likewise retreated along with the dollar, while Asian shares were mixed.

Something strange happened during yesterday's afternoon London fix: as gold was surging on a spike in geopolitical fears, which slammed the USDJPY below 110 and sent traders scrambling into safe assets such as TSYs, London's gold price benchmark waterfalled lower before fixed some $12 below the spot price on Tuesday afternoon as "the auction appeared to become locked in a downward spiral", according to Reuters.