Haven assets advance as missile test rattles traders

Bloomberg

A risk-off mood seeped into markets on Tuesday, with haven assets including gold and the Japanese yen climbing and stocks slipping in the wake of an apparent milestone in North Korea’s weapons program.
Early market optimism in Asia — sparked by bullish American economic data yesterday — ebbed as North Korea said it successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, moving the state closer to its goal of building a device capable of hitting the continental US Gold headed for its first advance in four days. European stocks slipped led by telecom and utility shares. Oil’s rally stalled after OPEC production increased.
Even with US markets shuttered for Independence Day, catalysts seemed to stack up for investors. As North Korea’s missile launch returned focus to the country’s weapons program, profit-taking
in Hong Kong sparked yet an
other selloff, and a data glitch saw erroneous prices of Nasdaq stocks — including some of the world’s biggest technology companies — flooding screens. Investors were also disappointed as Australia’s central bank failed to join global counterparts in ditching their
easing bias.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday releases the minutes from its June 13-14 policy meeting, at which officials raised interest rates. Minutes from the latest ECB meeting come a day later. German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts a two-day G-20 summit in Hamburg beginning Friday. President Donald Trump will attend and is expected to hold his first meeting Putin on the sidelines. American employers probably added around 175,000 workers in June and wage growth probably strengthened, consistent with a solid labor market, economists project the US Labor Department to report on Friday.
The yen rose 0.1 percent to 113.25 per dollar as of 8:34 a.m. in New York. The currency tumbled 0.9 percent on Monday. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed after jumping 0.5 percent in the previous session. The dollar strengthened the most in two weeks Monday after US factories powered up in June at the fastest pace in nearly three years. The pound fell 0.1 percent to $1.2926 after halting an eight-day rally on Monday. The euro was 0.2 percent lower at $1.1345.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.1 percent, with telecom and utility shares both dropping 0.6 percent. Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 percent after the underlying index posted a similar gain on Monday.
The US market closed early for the July 4 holiday.
West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 0.2 percent to $46.96 a barrel. The contract rose 2.2 percent on Monday, capping an eight-day rally as oil rebounded after falling into a bear market.
Gold rose 0.4 percent to $1,224.48 an ounce, after dropping 1.7 percent on Monday for its biggest loss of the year amid the dollar’s advance.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose five basis points to 2.35 percent on Monday, after surging 16 basis points last week. The market was closed on Tuesday. UK 10-year yields dropped one basis point to 1.25 percent.