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.
Category: north korea
North Korea Fires Missile Over Japan, S&P Futs Fall, Yen Rises
Ok, well there goes Friday…
Them’s Fightin’ Words.
There’s tension in the air.
Nikkei Snaps Win Streak As North Korea Threatens To ‘Sink’ Japan With ‘The Nuclear Bomb Of Juche’
 “A telling blow should be dealt to them who have not yet come to senses after the launch of our ICBM over the Japanese archipelago.”
Japanese Shares Surge Amid Asia Rally As Investors Super-Excited World Didn’t End
It’s all green screens out there early on as the relief rally gathered steam in
No ‘Apocalypse Now’, But Maybe Later – Full Week Ahead Preview
This week’s market-moving events are likely to be unscheduled. Remember, Irma is still a catastrophic natural disaster even if it didn’t quite turn into a scene out of a bad Jake Gyllenhaal movie. And as the above mentioned Ben Purvis notes, “Kim Jong Un [could decide] to inject himself into the conversation again,” at any time.
‘The Clocks Stopped At 1:17’…
Ok, get ready.
For now, the fiscal-chaos-can has been kicked, Harvey is behind us, and North Korea’s latest nuclear test has come and gone.
But dead ahead is Irma’s landfall in Florida, North Korea’s “founding day” (which by most accounts will be “celebrated” with an ICBM launch), and of course, more gridlock in D.C. We are, figuratively and literally, in the eye of the storm on Friday.
‘Monday Could Look Very Different From Friday’
“There was a lot of market-moving news yesterday. More to come. Unfortunately for traders, the two items with the biggest potential lasting effects are virtually impossible to handicap. And to make matters worse, we won’t know their punch-line until the weekend: when markets are closed for business.”
Bloomberg: Trump Is Making A Bad Situation Worse With North Korea
“As a negotiating strategy, Trump’s approach is utterly unsuited to the North Korean crisis. For one, it’s almost certain to fail.”
U.S. Seeks Oil Embargo On North Korea, Freeze Of Kim’s Assets: Draft Resolution
It looks like the Trump administration is going to push the “nuclear” option re: North Korea.
No, not that nuclear option.
North Korea Promises ‘More Gift Packages’ As South Korean Shares Fall For 5th Day
“The recent self-defense measures by my country, DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the U.S. The U.S. will receive more ‘gift packages’ from my country as long as its relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK.”
Death By A Thousand Cuts.
The bottom line is that between another powerful hurricane approaching the U.S. mainland, U.S. markets catching up with their global counterparts in terms of pricing in North Korea after the long weekend, the DACA decision which portends more bickering in Washington, and the looming debt ceiling debate (with the specter of a technical default showing up in today’s decidedly poor 4-week bill auction), it was death by a thousand cuts.
One Trader Wishes You’d ‘Stop Pretending That You Care The World’s Ending’
“Just to be clear, nothing moved enough to indicate any panic or identify where safety can really be found. And that isn’t all good. Asset prices pretend to be consumed with issues politic, but in fact trivialize everything.”
Goldman On Gold: North Korea And ‘The True Hedge Of Last Resort’
Last night, we asked if gold might be overbought amid all the fretting over whether North Korea will or won’t pick a nuclear fight with Donald Trump (which is a lot like arming yourself with a butter knife and jabbing it into the ribs of a coked-out chimpanzee waving an M4A1 carbine).
As North Korea Moves ICBM To Launch Site In Wheelbarrow, Kospi Falls 4 Days In A Row
Ok, so following the latest news out of the Korean peninsula, where Kim is apparently using the cover of darkness to move an ICBM fitted to a wheelbarrow to a launch site in preparation for another provocation ahead of (or on) founding day, South Korean shares fell again.Â
North Korea Seen Moving ICBM Into Position For Launch
“North Korea started moving an ICBM-class missile produced from Pyongyang research center on Monday after the nuclear test on Sunday,” Asia Business Daily reports, citing an unidentified official.
Is Gold Overbought Or Will Flying Missiles Make Shiny Doorstops Great Again?
But again, part of the story here is that gold could get some of the haven flows that would normally go to the yen. Because if this gets bad – and reports that Japan is preparing plans to evacuate 60,000 citizens living in or visiting South Korea suggest it might – then investors will likely shun the yen in favor of bullion and the franc (because as far as we know, Kim isn’t firing missiles at Switzerland).Â
Japan Reportedly Readies Mass Evacuation Plan For 60,000 Citizens In South Korea
Ok, well this is interesting. Nikkei is out reporting that Japan is planning for a possible
Vol. On ‘Cheap Market With Fast Earnings Growth’ Just Spiked The Most Since ‘Fire And Fury’
So that’s all fine and good, but the thing is (and we’ve been warning about this for months), you’ve gotta wonder about an equity market that’s seen an avalanche of YTD inflows and until recently was sitting near record highs when, at least by proximity, the country it represents is the most dangerous place on earth (hyperbolic, but you get the idea).
Asian Shares Tumble, Gold Rises As North Korea Said Planning New Missile Launch
“Though considered a tail risk, a military confrontation on the Korean peninsula could see Asian currencies falling 5% to 10% and the region’s equities plunging 20%,” UBS Wealth Management Global CIO Mark Haefele and head of Asia Pacific investment Min Lan Tan write in a new note.
South Korean Stocks, Won Tumble As Traders Weigh Risks
The oil issue has been contentious for its potential to spark a humanitarian crisis. “Eyes are on whether countries will push for an oil embargo on North Korea, which in the past, has served as a trigger for physical conflict,” Takahashi adds.
‘Nuclear Reaction’: S&P, Nikkei Futs Fall, Gold Rises As Markets Warily Eye Pyongyang
These things have a way of reversing themselves in the overnight as investors have been conditioned to fade the initial reaction to North Korea news, but that will be tested given the severity of the provocation.Â
‘Good Luck, We’re All Counting On You’: Full Week Ahead Preview
To be sure, whatever you thought was going to dominate the news flow in the week ahead is probably going to take a backseat to North Korea, for obvious reasons.Â
But North Korea isn’t the only thing on traders’ minds this week. Not by a long shot.
Trump Says U.S. May ‘Stop All Trade’ With Nations That Support North Korea
Earlier today, in the course of documenting the latest out of North Korea, where Kim is apparently busy trying to figure out if he can jerry-rig one of his homemade H-bombs to one of his homemade ICBMs with masking tape and Elmer’s glue, we noted that the last resort (short of war) may be to simply cut off the North’s oil supply.
Well, sure enough…
Trump Says North Korea ‘Only Understands One Thing’ And He Wishes You’d Let Him Get On With It
Listen, if Pyongyang launches an H-bomb-tipped ICBM and turns San Francisco into a pile of smoldering
After North Korea Nuclear Test, ‘Risk Of Weapon Being Used Is Highest Since Cuban Missile Crisis’
“I think that the risk of a nuclear weapon being used somewhere in the world today is higher than it has been in a very very long time, arguably going back to the Cuban Missile crisis.”
Riders On The Storm.
Right, so the storm wasn’t supposed to come until next month.
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