According to Xinhua News Agency, North Korea fired at least 200 artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea, and the South Korean military responded by sending F 16 fighter jets to stand by and watch. It is reported that soldiers and residents were injured on the island.
The Korean won, which was the first to be affected, fell sharply, falling by about 1% in late trading, and the overseas non-deliverable forward foreign exchange (NDF) of 1 month against the US dollar once fell by 4.4%.
According to foreign reports, in the evening, South Korea's Ministry of Finance said that the Bank of Korea and economic officials will hold an emergency meeting to assess the possible financial market shocks caused by North Korea's fire on South Korea and the necessary countermeasures.
The fire at the city gate affected the fish in the pool. According to market participants, investors may sell Malaysian ringgit, Thai baht and other Asian currencies one after another due to concerns about political tensions in Asia, with the Japanese yen rapidly falling to 83.84 against the US dollar, the lowest since the beginning of 10. At the same time, the Australian dollar also fell sharply to the intraday low of 0.9778, which fluctuated around 0.9860.
The news of the Korean War is undoubtedly worse for the euro, which has been under heavy pressure recently. After the news came out, EUR/USD fell from 1.3590 to 1.3535 at the end of the Asian session. After the European market opened, it hit an intraday low of 1.3525 and rebounded to around 1.3580 at 18:50 Beijing time, but it is expected that the short-term market will still face a downward shock.
While all non-US currencies fell, the US dollar index benefited from the spread of market risk aversion. The US dollar index rose sharply in the Asian market in a short period of time, hitting a high of 79. 1 1.
However, market participants pointed out that later in the day, the United States will announce the revised GDP in the third quarter and the minutes of the Fed meeting. These factors will become an important basis for considering whether the Fed will expand the scale of quantitative easing policy, and have a significant impact on the direction of the dollar.
Gold is trembling slightly.
The originally calm gold futures, however, staged a roller coaster market due to the sudden "exchange of fire between the DPRK and the ROK".
"I heard that North Korea and South Korea exchanged fire!" Yesterday 14: 30, this rumor quickly became the "headline news" in the gold trading market, and it was quickly confirmed, which also ignited the short-term safe-haven buying of gold.
"In just half an hour, you can see a lot of gold bills almost every minute, and there are often millions of dollars in single bills, mainly from South Korea and Japan." A commodity broker of a Hong Kong bank said, "At that time, some Japanese and Korean investment institutions shorted the yen and won, turning their assets into gold as a safe haven."
Driven by safe-haven buying, the price of gold in Comex 65438+February quickly got rid of the previous downward trajectory and rose by 0.6% in just half an hour.
However, the continuous wave of safe-haven buying of gold did not continue.
From 3 pm, COMEX gold futures prices suddenly returned to decline. "On the one hand, the global commodity correction trend cannot make gold rise alone. On the other hand, the exchange of fire between the DPRK and the ROK has not escalated, reducing market tension. " The above brokers explained, "But this wave of roller coaster market mainly occurred during Asian trading hours. Once the European trading hours arrive, European and American investors may be more likely to buy safely caused by the exchange of fire between South Korea and North Korea. "
The reporter found that after the opening of European and American trading hours at 19, the contract price of COMEX gold 65438+February rose rapidly by 0.24% to 1363.7 USD/oz. "The short-term buyers of gold are mainly event-driven hedge funds and speculators. After all, the exchange of fire between the DPRK and the ROK will cause European and American investment institutions to worry about the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region, thus withdrawing some investment funds from Asia and buying gold instead. " The aforementioned commodity brokers analyzed that "as long as the exchange of fire between the DPRK and the ROK has not escalated, the gold market should soon return to calm."
As of 19: 30, COMEX gold 65438+February contract entered a downward trajectory again, closing at 1362 USD/oz.