Market Snapshot – North Korea and Euro Dominate Headlines

Market Rocked by North Korea

The market been rocked by headlines related to North Korea. The foreign minister of that country has once again sharpened the knives as he said that the comments from Trump over last weekend were a declaration of war and hence North Korea had all the authority to defend itself in such a situation. He further added that it also reserves the right to strike down planes of the US even if they are not in their airspace. These kinds of speeches have been heard quite a bit earlier but it always throws the spanner in the works as far as the markets are concerned and now we are seeing gold prices shooting higher and the yen getting stronger as well. This has pushed the speech from Draghi to the background and though he did not add too much to the euro fire, it is all about North Korea for now.

Euro on the Backfoot

The euro is having a difficult time across the markets as the German elections did not give the required majority for Merkel to form a government of her own. This has led to a situation where she has to depend on a coalition and that has increased the uncertainty and the risks in the market. This has put a lot of pressure on the euro and the threat from North Korea has only added to the risk in the market which has led the euro to break through its range of last few weeks.