Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
The geographic location of Afghanistan has always occupied a central role in many geopolitical studies. Donald Trump’s reasons for reinforcing US troops in the region are driven by the continuing US need to prevent a complete Eurasian integration among regional powers.
On Sunday, North Korea tested its most powerful nuclear bomb yet, detonating a device that caused a 6.3 magnitude tremor.
The weapon's sheer power has caused alarm but the fact that Pyongyang is claiming it can be fitted inside an intercontinental ballistic missile is sending shockwaves through Asia and beyond.
The USDJPY and 10Y yields snapped lower and gold kneejerked higher following the latest North Korea-related headline out of Bloomberg, according to which:
Bloomberg references a just released article in the Asia Business Daily, according to which North Korea started moving the ICBM-class missile, produced at a new Pyongyang research center, on Monday following Sunday's thermonuclear test.
While stocks have been limping higher since around 2am ET (following headlines on an imminent ICBM launch) they remain lower from Friday's close:
But precious metals the biggest gainers of post-North Korean "hydrogen bomb" testing safe haven flows.
Silver broke above resistance at early June highs to test $18 and the highest levels since April 25th.
But that was clearly not acceptable to someone:
Having started off with a sharp gap lower following Sunday's news of the latest, 6th nuclear test by North Korea, global stocks and US futures pared losses in the overnight session, despite reports of North Korean preparations for yet another missile launch, while the yen trimmed its risk-off gains even as gold kept its upside and the South Korean Kospi closing 1.2% lower, with traders asking whether "this time will be different:, or inversely, will today's market reaction will be a carbon copy of what happened last Monday, when stocks gapped sharply lower on North Korea mi