Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
It was no coincidence that America's 11-ton bunker-tunnel busting bomb was deployed in Afghanistan as tensions mount over North Korea's nuclear theats.
In the past, China resisted U.S. saber-rattling against North Korea. Now China is threatening North Korea with military action. What's going on? Why the sudden convergence of U.S.-China threats of military force against North Korea?
For all the expectations of a North Korean nuke test, the country's "Day of the sun" celebrations ended up being a relatively subdued affair, with Pyongyang marking the 105th anniversary of its founding leader Kim Il-sung with a military parade in Pyongyang, where it for the first time publicly showcased its submarine-launched ballistic missiles as well as what appears to be a new type of ICBM, even as a U.S. aircraft carrier group steamed towards the region.
“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.