NORTH KOREA KICKS IT UP A GEAR
Equity markets are down, gold is up, once again thanks to North Korea. The DPRK took things a step further over the weekend, after they claimed that they had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb which could be fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of attacking the U.S. mainland.
Hydrogen bombs (pictured) are far more devastating than atomic bombs, with a much wider blast radius. A typical yield (the amount of energy released by the explosion) for an H-bomb can be measured in megatons, and when even one megaton is the equivalent to over 1 million tons of TNT, (not to mention the potential radioactive fallout), it's no wonder world leaders are worried.
In Asia at the close earlier today, the Japanese TOPIX (-0.99%), Australian ASX200 (-0.39%), Indian NIFTY50 (-0.79%) and FTSE Hong Kong index (-0.51%) had all fallen substantially. Meanwhile gold prices rallied, hitting a 12-month high. South Korea believes more missile tests are incoming, so expect volatility in equity markets to continue for the time being. Markets in the U.S. are closed today for Labor Day, but will resume tomorrow as normal!
In Europe, markets fell at the open and mostly continued their slide downward throughout the day, though the DAX30 (-0.14%), STOXX50 (-0.21%) and FTSE MIB Italy (-0.18%) made some small decent gains towards the end of the session. The FTSE100 was originally leading, thanks to mining stocks Fresnillo (+1.85%) and Randgold Resources (+1.83%) benefitting from higher precious metals prices. European indices have generally had a weak August / September when compared to the rest of the year.