European stocks rebounded after the biggest one-day drop since November, alongside S&P futures, while Asian equities posted modest declines after yesterday's weak US close. Gold and yen slid, while the dollar gained on the latest Mnuchin comments to the FT according to which Trump was "absolutely not" trying to talk down the dollar.
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.
The timing of Bloomberg's Richard Breslow left something to be desired: just hours after he urged traders not to assume that "each event will end badly", the market quickly did just that, breaking virtually every "reflation support line" and then as a cherry on top, Donald Trump flipped on half a year of market narratives, and may have put a final nail in the reflation trade coffin, sending the S&P below the 50DMA for the first time since the election.
S&P futures are unchanged and Asian stocks closed mixed, however European stocks rebounded for first time this week, led by auto stocks after Daimler’s quarterly profit, as a break in alarming political news prompted traders to "swoop" - as Reuters puts it - on equities, cooling a safe-haven rally that saw the yen and gold at five-month highs and global government bond yields to drop their lowest this year.
With volume starting to fade ahead of Friday's holiday, and geopolitical concerns growing as a US aircraft carrier approaches North Korean, S&P futures pointed to a slightly lower open, in line with stock markets in Europe and Asia. Safe havens such as gold and treasuries strengthened along with Japanese yen, which erased all of yesterday's losses and neared its 110 support on investor caution about global security risks and the future of U.S. interest rates after Yellen's Monday speech failed to provide clarity.