North Korean nuclear fears send investors scurrying for safe havens
Tokyo — Asian stocks fell, while the yen and Swiss franc gained, on the mooted possibility of North Korea conducting another hydrogen bomb test, this time in the Pacific Ocean. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said on Friday he believed the North could consider a nuclear test on an "unprecedented scale" in the Pacific Ocean, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan handed back earlier gains and was down 0.4% after falling 0.7% the previous day. The index rose to a decade high on Tuesday, lifted as Wall Street advanced to record levels before falling back later in the week after the Fed heightened expectations for a third interest rate hike this year. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.2% and Australian stocks advanced 0.2%. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.5% on the latest bout of geopolitical tensions. Shanghai was down 0.5% after S&P Global Ratings downgraded China’s long-term sovereign credit rating on Thursday, less than a mon...
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