The "soft", i.e., survey data, rollover accelerated this morning, when Markit reported that in March the Service PMI posted a second consecutive decline, dropping from 53.8 to 52.8, missing expectations of a 53.1 print. This was the lowest reading since September 2016.
In his overnight FX note, SocGen's Kit Juckes explains why a certain foreboding feeling of political and economic nervousness abounds in market, which continue to ignore the near all-time highs in the S&P, and instead can't quite shake off the sense that something is wrong, starting with US car sales data which don't usually make big waves, but an underwhelming performance was enough to drive Treasury yields down again and concerns that the US economy is losing momentum have returned, putting a dampener on risk sentiment generally.
Global stocks were pressured by a poor start to the second quarter in the US, where carmakers reported disappointing sales data, slamming auto stocks around the globe. The selling has persisted for a second day, with Asian stocks and European shares all partially in the red today after their biggest decline in two weeks. Car sector is biggest mover in Europe, offsetting gains in financial services and media.
After it emerged courtesy of Mike Cernovich that former National Security Advisor Susan Rice had made numerous requests to “unmask” the identities of Americans associated with President Trump in intelligence reports, senator Rand Paul who in recent days has been on increasingly better terms with the president and even went golfing with him this weekend, said Rice should testify under oath about her involvment in a potentially illegal scandal that she herself denied she had any knowledge of as recently as 2 weeks ago.
Update: according to Telesur, Lenin Moreno has won the Ecuadorian presidential election Sunday. With 94 percent of the vote counted, Lenin defeated former banker Guillermo Lasso, candidate for the right-wing alliance with 51.15 percent to 48.85 percent, according to results issued by the country’s National Electoral Council on Sunday at 8:20 p.m. The CNE said it was a transparent and successful election process. A victory for Moreno means that Assange will be safe from expulsion from Ecuador's London embassy for the immediate future.