James Gruber

10-year treasury yield fell three points to 4.29%, while the U.S.

two-year treasury yield also dropped three points to 3.77%.

To the European markets, both the continent-wide FTSE Euro First 300 index and UK FTSE 100 ended down 0.2%.

Europe ticked lower as earlier pessimism on US-Iran talks weighed on sentiment.

Financial shares added 1.2%.

British fintech firm Wise rose 6.5% after its quarterly cross-border volume surged ahead of its Nasdaq debut.

The Aerospace and Defence Index was higher after coming under pressure last week.

Germany's Rheinmetall and the UK's BAE systems were up over 2% each.

Communication services and healthcare weighed heavily on the benchmark indices.

Shares of Deutsche Telekom fell 6% after hitting an over two-month low earlier following a broker downgrade.

It's now time for the watch list.

In Australia, there are a host of ASX companies making dividend payments this week, including Chorus and Pepper Money this morning.

There's also the NAB Business Confidence Survey for March and Westpac Consumer Confidence Index out today.

In the US, first quarter earnings season has kicked off and today there are earnings reports from JP Morgan, Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, BlackRock and CarMax.

The US producer price index for March will also be released.

Now it's time for our One More Thing segment.

If you're frustrated by rising oil and petrol prices, spare a thought for people in Asia.

Around 80% of the oil and 90% of the gas that runs through the Strait of Hormuz is bound for Asian markets.

Poorer countries in Asia are being hit especially hard.

The