Gold up for fourth straight session on North Korea tensions

The local currency was trading at 1,145.05 won against the USA dollar, down 3.05 won from the previous session’s close. Health care companies were among the gainers.

As investors sold stocks around the world, assets perceived as havens – such as gold, the Japanese yen and US government bonds – strengthened.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 204.69 points to 21,844.01.

Equity markets had traded with a soft tone in Europe and there was a sharp increase in selling pressure in NY with the S&P 500 index declining by close to 1.0%.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to 2.211%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.246% on Wednesday as prices rose.

Tillerson’s tone was in sharp contrast to that of USA president Donald Trump, who warned on Tuesday any North Korean threat to the United States would be met with “fire and fury”.

Trump, whose threat this week to bring “fire and fury” was dismissed by North Korea, said on Thursday that statement might not have been “tough enough”.

Speaking live on state television at a forum for Russian students, Lavrov encouraged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan, under which North Korea would freeze its missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises.

“Pretty remarkable, perhaps even extraordinary, considering”, said Tim Ash, strategist at fund manager BlueBay.

“We have the global economy doing quite well and some evidence that the USA economy can get back in gear and accelerate a little bit”, he said.

Heading into Thursday, some 89 percent of the companies in the S&P 500 had reported quarterly results. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 1.4 percent to 2,438.21. Shares of Kohl’s (KSS) tumbled by 6.7% after an earnings beat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kohls-stock-jumps-premarket-after-earnings-beat-2017-08-10).

The Nasdaq Composite, which includes many such companies, fell 1.6%. Discovery Communications fell 94 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $23.36. Net income was $116.0 million, or 38 cents per share, up from $11.0 million, or 3 cents per share, for the same period previous year. Twenty-First Century Fox gave up 46 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $27.57.

“If it’s North Korea, I don’t think this will be a fruitful period for equity investors”, Nick said. The stock lost $2.81 to $9.03.

The Russell 2000 is up 15.41 points, or 1.1 percent. Humana rose $3.59, or 1.4 percent, to $253.81.

In European markets, the French CAC 40 was down 0.7% and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 shed 1.2%.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, and the heavily weighted financials group lead broad declines.

Hong Kong was down 1.1%.

Japanese markets were closed for a holiday but the tense mood dragged Asian shares lower and an MSCI index of stocks across the globe was on track to post its largest weekly drop since the week before Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November.

The Swiss franc is up close to 1.5%, its strongest one-day rise since 2015, and gold is up 1% to $1275 per ounce, its highest level for eight weeks.

In commodities, US. crude fell 0.67 per cent to $49.23 per barrel and Brent was last at $52.58, down 0.23 per cent on the day.

The dollar was little changed against a basket of major currencies.