Major US equity indices fell sharply during the opening hour of trade on Thursday as investors reacted to the resurfacing geopolitical tensions.
The US President Donald Trump called off a planned summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. There were already signs that the planned meeting might eventually not happen due to the recent comments from Pyongyang officials.
The announcement comes after officials from the isolated nation expressed anger over the US demands to denuclearize and comments by their minister of foreign affairs that if the talks were called off, the US would face off in a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”
The news triggered a fresh wave of global risk-aversion trade and faded some optimism led by Wednesday’s dovish FOMC meeting minutes, wherein the central bank indicated that it won’t be too aggressive in raising interest rates.
At the time of writing this report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off around 130 points at 24,756 and the broader S&P 500 Index fell nearly 13 points to 2,721. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index retreated by over 23-points back to 7,400 round figure mark.
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