FTSE 100

• Crude's Losses Drag Ruble, Loonie Lower; Stocks Pare Their Drop (BBG)
• Grand Oil Bargain Is Victim of Saudi Arabia's Iran Fixation (BBG)
• Both Parties’ Presidential Front-Runners Increasingly Unpopular (WSJ)
• It's up to you, New York: state takes center stage in election campaign (Reuters)
• Rousseff Hangs by a Thread After Losing Impeachment Vote (BBG)
• China March home prices rise at fastest rate in two years, top cities boom (Reuters)
• Shaken Ecuador hunts for survivors amid 7.8 quake debris (Reuters)

Following yesterday's OPEC "production freeze" meeting in Doha which ended in total failure, where in a seemingly last minute change of heart Saudi Arabia and specifically its deputy crown prince bin Salman revised the terms of the agreement demanding Iran participate in the freeze after all knowing well it won't, oil crashed and with it so did the strategy of jawboning for the past 2 months had been exposed for what it was: a desperate attempt to keep oil prices stable and "crush shorts" while global demand slowly picked up.

Good news is still bad news after all.

After last night's China 6.7% GDP print which while the lowest since Q1 2009, was in line with expectations, coupled with beats in IP, Fixed Asset Investment and Retail Sales (on the back of $1 trillion in total financing in Q1)...

In another quiet overnight session, the biggest - and unexpected - macro news was the surprise monetary easing by Singapore which as previously reported moved to a 2008 crisis policy response when it adopted a "zero currency appreciation" stance as a result of its trade-based economy grinding to a halt.

With oil losing some of its euphoric oomph overnight, following the API report of a surge in US oil inventories, and a subsequent report that Iran's oil minister would skip the Doha OPEC meeting altogether, the global stock rally needed another catalyst to maintain the levitation.