‘Geopolitical Risks Won’t Go Away’: North Korea’s Latest Missile Launch Tests Market’s Resilience

“USDKRW will likely rise to 1,140 level after North Korea’s latest missile launch though the overall impact won’t be too extreme considering the situation inside the U.S.,” An Young-jin, an economist at SK Securities said this evening, summing up what appears to be the consensus view regarding North Korea’s latest provocation that saw Kim launch another missile over Japanese territory.

To be sure, everyone knew this was coming. Indeed, KCNA tipped it on Thursday morning in a hilariously hyperbolic (even by Pyongyang’s standards) series of threats that included this miracle of bombast:

Japan is no longer needed to exist near us. The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche.

So I suppose anything short of “sinking” Japan with an H-bomb is a bit of a “disappointment.”

Still, everyone’s favorite hermit kingdom is quite clearly determined to push the envelope as far as it can be pushed short of forcing the Chinese to acquiesce to an oil embargo, an eventuality which would spell the beginning of the end for a family-run dictatorship that’s lorded it over the North for seven decades.

Friday’s projectile was apparently of the Hwasong-12 variety as there was no separation, Japanese local broadcaster TV Asahi said on Twitter, citing an unidentified Japanese defense ministry official. Japan Chief Cabinet Minister Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo was still evaluating the missile which flew 3,700km. PM Abe says Japan was “completely aware” of the missile’s trajectory from the time it was launched.

“The North Korea missile launch is unfavorable to the equity market, but the yen has retreated after it strengthened to react to the launch, so stocks may not decline too much,” Nomura’s Masaaki Yamaguchi said, adding that “geopolitical risks won’t go away anytime soon, yet market participants have learned from the past events, so it’s possible reactions to a missile launch may get smaller.”

S&P futs held onto declines, but the dip was relatively shallow. Japanese equities erased early losses to trade positive.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say this is an escalation. The initial missile that went over northern Japan was an escalation, then obviously the nuclear test was an escalation: this is more of a continuance of provocation,” K2 Asset Management’s James Soutter opined. “It was still tested over Japan or a flight path they’ve done before, by the looks of it, so it’s a negative but it’s not an escalation.”

We would respectfully disagree with that assessment. Just because you didn’t aim your missiles at something new doesn’t mean firing missiles isn’t an “escalation.” That’s like saying that if I rob my neighbor once and he warns me not to do it again, it’s not an “escalation” if I rob him a second time as long as I break in through the same door.

In any event, let’s see how it plays out overnight. If nothing else, we’ll all get to chuckle at another iteration of the now ubiquitous “buy the missile launch dip” trade by the time the closing bell sounds on Wall Street.

Oh, and finally, here’s Tillerson:

Speak your mind

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

2 thoughts on “‘Geopolitical Risks Won’t Go Away’: North Korea’s Latest Missile Launch Tests Market’s Resilience

  1. The Heisenbergman can be incredibly naive when he puts his mind to it…he really needs a partner (like me) to give him a cold slap now and then….

    Why is anyone surprised by this launch??? Of course Geopolitics won’t conform or go away…it is the 800 pound gorilla..it’s the King of the Beasts. No. Korea….PREDICTABLY launched./.their Nation State Imperative is to survive..and they have found their ONE TRICK PONY…

    They will play Trump because he is the ultimate wanna be chump…and KiimeBoyUn is Smarter..shrewer and more disciplined..That really grates open theme callers and under the table racist punks whop KimUn has scammed..Get used ti it..sio my question is…WHY ARE WE DEFENIDNG SO. KOREA WHEN THEY ARE READY TO DEAL WITH THE NORTH?????

  2. Good intelligence about Kim’s location, plus a super sonic cruise missle with an outlawed neutron warhead would do the trick, especially if our short ABM technology was optimized. But that will never happen. The place is so monolithic that striking him down would lead to no response. Don’t worry, Trump would never play that card.

NEWSROOM crewneck & prints