Japan

Shortly after the UN Security Council "strongly condemned" North Korea’s “highly provocative” ballistic missile launch over Japan on Friday, Kim Jong Un vowed he would complete his nation's nuclear program despite escalating international sanctions. On Saturday, state-run news agency KCNA quoted the leader, who said that North Korea is nearing its goal of "equilibrium of real force” with the U.S. and claimed that North Korea's nuclear program is nearly complete.

S&P futures are slightly lower (ES -0.1%) as traders paid little attention to the latest missile test by North Korea on Friday, with shares and other risk assets barely moving, gold lower and focus rapidly returning to when and where interest rates will go up. Most global market are mostly unfazed, and the Korean Kospi actually closed up 0.4%, by the latest geopolitical escalation after a North Korean ballistic missile flew far enough to put the U.S. territory of Guam in range. European stocks edged fractionally lower while Asian shares advanced.

The last month has seen "Fire & Fury" threats, Gary Cohn resignation concerns, North Korean missiles over Japan, Hurricane Harvey, North Korean Hydrogen Bomb tests, and now Hurricane Irma... and stocks are higher...

The Guardian reports that Japan's economy during the second quarter of 2017 expanded at the fastest pace in its six-consecutive quarter growth span. The approaching 2020 Tokyo Olympics and low unemployment levels encourage business investments.  

This information is a boost in morale amid the rising regional tension caused by the war of words between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. The tension between the two leaders rattled global stock markets and could threaten the economy of many countries.

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

By setting off a 100-kiloton bomb, after firing a missile over Japan, Kim Jong Un has gotten the world’s attention.

What else does he want?

Almost surely not war with America. For no matter what damage Kim could visit on U.S. troops and bases in South Korea, Okinawa and Guam, his country would be destroyed and the regime his grandfather built annihilated.