U.S. stocks up as N Korea fears ease

Nearly 90% of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished higher.

Japan’s Nikkei stock index ended 1.1 percent higher, boosted by the weaker yen, a day after skidding 1 percent to its lowest since early May.

Last week, tensions escalated between North Korea and the US after President Donald Trump warned of “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea continued to issue threats. While DPRK revealed plans to strike a Western Pacific US territory Guam, the US President Donald Trump said military options on North Korea “locked and loaded”. Those concerns had helped wipe out almost US$1 trillion (RM4.29 trillion) from global equity markets last week.

Increased demand for USA equity futures should also help push gold prices lower because this will encourage gold buyers to sell positions bought as hedges against a stock market meltdown.

Wall Street looked set for gains, with Dow futures up 0.4% at 21,933.00 and S&P 500 futures adding 0.6% to 2,453.70, AP reported.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.1 percent, with financials among the gainers and energy stocks losing ground as oil prices fell. The Nasdaq composite climbed 81.06 points to 6,337.62.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, edged up 0.1 percent to 93.168, .DXY , after slipping around 0.3 percent on Friday.

Technology stocks in particular were higher, as Apple added $1.88, or 1.2 per cent, to $159.36 and Microsoft picked up $1.07, or 1.5 per cent, to $73.57. After two days of losses, Nvidia jumped $12.44, or 8 percent, to $168.40 as chipmakers made outsize gains. Brent crude, used to price global oils, slipped 13 cents to $51.97.

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 13/32 in price to yield 2.2623 percent, from 2.218 percent late on Monday.

Gold’s fall accelerated after strong USA retail sales in July and strength in an index of business conditions in NY state suggested strong economic growth.

Brent crude, the worldwide benchmark, was last down 30 cents at $50.43 a barrel.

“After the sharp sell off in the dollar, over the weekend nothing happened so I guess the threat from the (Korean) peninsula is low, but we think gold fundamentals are strong”, Xu said.

USA gold futures for December delivery fell 0.8 percent to settle at $1,279.70.

Investors moved away from safe havens towards riskier assets like equities, sending the price of the precious metal down 0.84 per cent, below the key $1,280 mark to $1,279.60 per ounce.

A top Federal Reserve official suggested Monday that the Fed will likely announce next month that it will begin paring its bond portfolio – a step that could lead to slightly higher rates on mortgages and other loans.

Sterling also slumped after United Kingdom inflation numbers came in marginally below forecast, pushing the pound through key support levels against both the euro and dollar.