London — World stocks tumbled for a fourth day on Friday and were on course for their worst week since November, as the escalating war of words over North Korea drove investors towards the yen, the Swiss franc and gold. Europe’s main London, Frankfurt and Paris markets started between 0.5% and 1.1% lower, and Germany’s ultra-safe 10-year government bonds were trading at their highest prices since June. US President Donald Trump issued a new verbal warning to Pyongyang on Thursday, saying his previous promise to unleash "fire and fury" may not have been strong enough after North Korea responded with a threat to land a missile near the US Pacific territory of Guam. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday but the in-demand yen powered on, hitting an eight-week high of ¥108.91 to the dollar, adding to its biggest weekly gain since May. The yen tends to benefit during times of geopolitical or financial stress as Japan is the world’s biggest creditor nation and there is an assumption t...
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