Stocks jump at the open as North Korea tensions ease a bit

Tesla (TSLA.O) rose 1.7% after two brokerages raised their price targets on the stock, citing the potential success of the company’s Model 3 sedan. It fell to a one-week low of 92.99 a few minutes after the release of inflation figures. That is the reason for the demand for the yen (FXY) despite Japan being geographically closer to North Korea.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was back over the 22,000-point threshold after a 146-point gain. The S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day percentage gain since April.

The losses brought the Hang Seng down 2.5 per cent for the week, making for its worst weekly performance this year.

Investors tend to buy Yen and Franc amid political tensions.

The strong US data and the “specter of cooler heads prevailing on the geopolitical front” were what pushed the dollar to its highs, said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.

The bond market was without direction: the yield of u.s. Treasury bills to 10 years, which evolves to the inverse of the bond price, appears to 2,190 %, compared to 2,198 % Thursday evening, and that bills to 30 years at 2,786 %, compared to 2,773 %.

Almost $1 trillion has been wiped out from global equity markets since Trump’s promise on Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea if it threatens the United States.

And North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hinted Tuesday he would hold off on the plan to test-fire missiles towards the US Pacific island territory of Guam, saying he would “watch a little more the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees”. US President Donald Trump added to the heat by tweeting that “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely”.

The VIX, also known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, jumped 44 percent, to 16.04, its highest level this year. The Nasdaq composite rose 83 points, or 1.3 percent, to 6,340.

Against the Swiss franc the dollar rose 0.3 percent, after jumping more than 1 percent on Monday.

“It looks like it was used as a good excuse to adjust positions”, he said, referring to the latest flare-up of tensions between the United States and North Korea.

Australian shares were down 1.5 percent, set for a weekly loss of 0.8 percent.

United States crude futures rose 7c to $47.66 a barrel. Toronto-Dominion Bank rose 0.3 per cent to $64.28.

Sterling edged back above the 1.30 mark against the Dollar on Wednesday, having slid by around half a percent a day previous on expectations for a delay in the Bank of England’s interest rate hike timetable.

Gold futures, which had benefited last week from safe-haven demand, fell 0.5 percent to $1,281 an ounce.