“North Korea is a problem,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “The problem will be taken care of.”
JUST IN: Trump says "North Korea is a problem. The problem will be taken care of". https://t.co/qUerjlvzRB pic.twitter.com/9lbR7yUyIj
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) April 13, 2017
Which prompted North Korea's rebuke of US President Trump's "aggressive words," overnight.
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S&P futures extended their Wednesday decline, dropping in the overnight session with banking shares in focus ahead of results from JPMorgan and Citigroup. European stocks likewise retreated along with the dollar, while Asian shares were mixed.
Another night of ugliness in Asia as the 'froth' is blasted out of the exuberant hot-money-chased commodity markets. Chinese steel and iron ore futures tumbled on Wednesday to the lowest prices in months as market sentiment turned bearish on the demand outlook.
As Reuters reports, China's producer price inflation cooled for the first time in seven months in March, pressured by fears that Chinese steel production is higher than demand, leaving a glut of the metal later this year.
S&P futures are unchanged and Asian stocks closed mixed, however European stocks rebounded for first time this week, led by auto stocks after Daimler’s quarterly profit, as a break in alarming political news prompted traders to "swoop" - as Reuters puts it - on equities, cooling a safe-haven rally that saw the yen and gold at five-month highs and global government bond yields to drop their lowest this year.
With volume starting to fade ahead of Friday's holiday, and geopolitical concerns growing as a US aircraft carrier approaches North Korean, S&P futures pointed to a slightly lower open, in line with stock markets in Europe and Asia. Safe havens such as gold and treasuries strengthened along with Japanese yen, which erased all of yesterday's losses and neared its 110 support on investor caution about global security risks and the future of U.S. interest rates after Yellen's Monday speech failed to provide clarity.