Bonds, gold and
the yen jumped in Asia on Friday, while stocks retreated, as investors
fled to safe assets after the United States launched cruise missiles
against an airbase in Syria, raising the risk of confrontation with
Russia and Iran.
The
U.S. dollar dropped as much as 0.6 percent, while gold and oil prices
rallied hard, though the early market panic ebbed when a U.S. official
called the attack a "one-off", with no plans for escalation.
"It was a knee-jerk reaction because markets are starting to come back a little, as it doesn't seem like there will be further retaliation coming," said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of institutional client trading at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore.
European stocks were also poised for a negative start, with financial spreadbetters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 to open down 0.2 percent, and Germany's DAX to start the day 0.3 percent lower.
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the strikes on Thursday against an airbase controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in retaliation for a chemical attack, launched from the base on Tuesday, that killed at least 70 people.
Facing his biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office in January, Trump took the toughest direct U.S. action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war.
A Syrian human rights monitor said the missile strike had almost completely destroyed the airbase near Homs, and the city's governor said five had been killed and seven wounded.
While U.S. allies including Britain, Australia and Saudi Arabia, as well as Syria's opposition group, welcomed the move, Russia and Iran condemned the attack.
"It was a knee-jerk reaction because markets are starting to come back a little, as it doesn't seem like there will be further retaliation coming," said Christoffer Moltke-Leth, head of institutional client trading at Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore.
European stocks were also poised for a negative start, with financial spreadbetters expecting Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 to open down 0.2 percent, and Germany's DAX to start the day 0.3 percent lower.
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the strikes on Thursday against an airbase controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces in retaliation for a chemical attack, launched from the base on Tuesday, that killed at least 70 people.
Facing his biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office in January, Trump took the toughest direct U.S. action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war.
A Syrian human rights monitor said the missile strike had almost completely destroyed the airbase near Homs, and the city's governor said five had been killed and seven wounded.
While U.S. allies including Britain, Australia and Saudi Arabia, as well as Syria's opposition group, welcomed the move, Russia and Iran condemned the attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment