North Korea launched a missile in the direction of the east ahead of Asia’s Friday trading day.
The unidentified missile flew over Japan before landing 2,000 km east of Hokkaido, Reuters said, citing Japanese broadcaster NHK. Following the North’s latest launch, South Korea has responded by firing its own missile, according to Reuters.
The hermit state had warned through a state agency on Thursday that it would “sink” Japan, Reuters reported. North Korea had fired another ballistic missile which passed over northern Japan before falling into the sea on Aug. 29 local time.
The dollar fell against the safe-haven yen on the news, falling to 109.96 yen from levels around 110.27 by 6:22 a.m. HK/SIN. The Swiss franc, another safe-haven currency, firmed to trade at 0.9618 francs to the dollar after trading as low as 0.9636 earlier in the session.
Gold prices also climbed to $1,332.65 an ounce by 6:50 a.m. HK/SIN following news of the launch from levels around $1,329 seen before the news. The yellow metal is often regarded as a safe haven in times of geopolitical uncertainty.
Elsewhere, markets digested better-than-expected U.S. August consumer prices released on Thursday. The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in August, a touch above the 0.3 percent increased forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. Some investors speculated that the beat could potentially influence the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interest rates once more this year.
The Bank of England was also on the radar after it kept interest rates on hold at 0.25 percent, but noted that a withdrawal of monetary stimulus could be required “over the coming months.” The pound traded as high as $1.3406 following the news compared to the $1.32 handle seen before.
