Yesterday morning, with the US closed for holiday but with S&P futures trading modestly lower on the latest set of North Korean geopolitical fears, we asked "is this time different", referencing last week's similar setup, when futures gapped lower on Monday after the Kim regime shot a missile over Japan, only to surge into the end of the week.
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: