Well, that didn't last very long. The FTSE temporarily slipped into the red, down around 10 points. It's now trading flat, up around 5 points, led by small gains for Scottish Mortgage and Games Workshop.

Miners Endeavour and Fresnillo have slipped this morning as gold trades flat at $4,650.

All is not lost though, says ii's Richard Hunter. 'The FTSE100 remains defiantly positive on balance, having added 5.2 per cent in the year to date despite the current market uncertainty.

'By the same token, this performance could provide a springboard should a resolution to the conflict be reached, leading to the possibility of a return to the spike which the index was enjoying up until the end of February.'

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital has offered to buy Universal Music Group for around £48billion, after its stock price has 'languished' in recent years.

Pershing, which already owns a stake in Universal, said it had submitted the plan to the UMG board.

The deal would see the record label merge with a shell company, set up by Pershing, and list in New York.

Investors would receive €5.05 in cash and 0.77 shares in the new company for every Universal share they own.

The total deal is valued at around €30.40 with a total valuation of around €55billion (£48m).

'Since UMG’s listing, Sir Lucian Grainge and the company’s management have done an excellent job nurturing and continuing to build a world-class artist roster and generating strong business performance,' said Ackman.

'However, UMG's stock price has languished due to a combination of issues that are unrelated to the performance of its music business and importantly, all of them can be addressed with this transaction.'

The FTSE 100 opened 20 points higher, despite Trump's latest escalation in the war with Iran, but the blue-chip index is already starting to waver and trade flat by 8.10am.

Although it has been a volatile start to the year, the FTSE is up over 5 per cent in the year-to-date.